Much & Many; Little & Few; A lot, A lot of,

Lots of & Plenty

1) A lot of vs. Lots of

Use: A lot of and lots of are used to express that there is a large quantity of
something but:

a) We use a lot of in positive sentences, negative sentences and questions. This

expression can be used with countable or uncountable nouns.

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Some uncountale nouns

_____________ _________________ _________________ _______________
_____________ _________________ _________________ _______________
_____________ _________________ _________________ _______________
_____________ _________________ _________________ _______________

Some countale nouns

_____________ _________________ _________________ _______________
_____________ _________________ _________________ _______________
_____________ _________________ _________________ _______________
_____________ _________________ _________________ _______________

Examples

 There are a lot of dogs in the street. (Countable noun)

 I have a lot of time to answer your questions. (Uncountable noun)
 I saw a lot of people waiting in the queue. (Countable)
 We did have a lot of fun, didn't we? (Uncountable)

b) We use lots of in positive and negative sentences, however it is more informal. It

can be used with countable or uncountable nouns, and occasionally in questions.
Much & Many; Little & Few; A lot, A lot of,
Lots of & Plenty

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Examples

 We have lots of time to catch the plane, let’s relax. (Uncountable noun)
 There are lots of people in the queue today. (Countable)
 Oh my, you have spent lots of money on clothes! (Uncountable)
 I have lots of questions. (Countable)
 She has a lot of money = She has lots of money.

2) Much vs. Many

Use: Much and Many are used to express that there is a large quantity of
something. “Much” and “Many” are used in negative sentences and questions.
“Many” is used with countable nouns; “Much” is used with uncountable nouns.

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Examples

 I don't have many CD's in my collection. (Countable noun)

 They don't have much money to buy a present. (Uncountable noun)
 How many brothers do you have? (Countable noun)
 Is there much milk in the fridge? (Uncountable noun)

Phân biệt “much”, “many” với “a lot”, “a lots” và “plenty”

o We don't use “much” and “many” in positive sentences; “many” and “much”
are mostly found in interrogative and negative sentences. In the affirmative, we
use “a lot of”. We can replace “a lot of” with “lots of” or “plenty of”:
Much & Many; Little & Few; A lot, A lot of,
Lots of & Plenty

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Examples:

 I have much money. (Incorrect because the sentence is positive /

affirmative)
 I have a lot of money. (Correct)
 There has been a lot of rain recently. (Câu này viết có đúng không?)
 Have you got many friends? (Câu này viết có đúng không?)
 There no need to hurry. We’ve got plenty of time. (Câu này viết có đúng
không?)

o “Many” goes with plural nouns; “much”, with uncountable ones. As regards
“a lot (of)”, it does not matter whether we use it with plural or uncountable
words.
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o A lot (of) may also be possible in the negative and in the interrogative, but it
suggests a bigger quantity than many and much. For instance:
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 She didn’t gain much experience. (She gained very little experience.)
 She didn’t gain a lot of experience. (She learnt something from it.)
o In formal contexts, much and many are found in the affirmative when they are
part of the subject. Examples:
Much & Many; Little & Few; A lot, A lot of,
Lots of & Plenty

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 Much salt is not very good for the human body.

 Many women were at the demonstration.
o Much may also modify past participles used as adjectives, for instance:
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He was (very) much impressed by / with what she had done for him.
He was very happy. (Happy is a mere adjective, so much is not possible.)
o Very much can also be used before some adjectives, for example:
 She was very much afraid of the jungle.
o If we say:
 There aren’t many traffic cones.
 There are (very) few traffic cones.
 We haven’t got much jam.
 We’ve got (very) little jam.
=> The only difference between the four sentences above is that the ones with
(very) few and (very) little connote a smaller quantity.
o Tuy nhiên, chúng ta vẫn có thể dùng “too much” và “so much” trong các câu
khẳng định. Ví dụ:
I can’t drink this tea. There’s too much sugar in it.

Practice: Insert “much”, “many”, “a lot of” in each suitable gap

a) Did you see __________ iguanas?

b) There aren’t __________ caverns in this area.
c) She’s got __________ lances and shields. She likes collecting them.
d) __________ effort was devoted to please her.
Much & Many; Little & Few; A lot, A lot of,
Lots of & Plenty

e) We didn’t take __________ wine from the cellar —only a couple of bottles!
f) We didn’t hunt _____________ or _________________deers.
g) Have you got _____________ or ________________ring doughnuts?
h) I’ve got _____________ / ___________ / _______________ safety pins.
i) He doesn’t get _____________ or ________________money in his present job.
j) Was there _____________ or ________________traffic?
k) There is _____________ / ______________ / ____________ coal.

3) Few vs. Little

Use: “A few” and “few” are used with plural nouns; “a little” and “little”, with
uncountable ones. If we leave out “a”, it means that there is not enough of
something; but if we kept it, it has a positive sense, ie there is / are not a lot, but
enough for our own purposes. “Little” and “few” can be emphasized by “very”
and they have negative meanings.

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Examples

 There are only a few days left until Christmas. (Countable noun)
 Hurry up! We’ve got little time. (= not much, not enough time)
 He’s not popular. He has few friends. (not many, not enough friends)
 There is little hope of finding your wallet. (Uncountable noun)
 He is sad because he has very few friends. (Countable noun)
 They have very little knowledge about politics. (Uncountable noun)
 There are very few cherries.
Much & Many; Little & Few; A lot, A lot of,
Lots of & Plenty

 There’s very little time left.

Note

o If we put little before countable nouns, it means small: a little child/a

small child.

o “A little” và “a few” mang nghĩa khẳng định (có nghĩa là một chút, một
ít, một vài) nhưng nếu ta nói “only a little” hoặc “only a few” thì câu lại mang
nghĩa phủ định (giống với cách dùng của “little” và “few”)

 Hurry up! We’ve only got a little time.

 The village was very small. There were only a few houses.

Practice: Insert a little, (very) little, (very) few, a few in each suitable gap

a. There are _____________ plums. I don’t think we need to buy any today.
b. There are ______________ cherries; we’d better go and buy some.
c. There’s _____________ time left. (= We still have enough time left.)
d. There’s ______________ time left. (= We do not have enough time left.)
e. You’ve brought _______________ deckchairs. There are only four, and we are
five people.
f. There _______________ buttercups here. You must fetch some more.
g. There’s _____________ bread. Why don’t you go to the baker’s and get some?
h. We’ve got ______________ tiger-lilies. Please bring some more.
i. I’ve seen _______________ cured ham in the fridge. I think we have enough.

Xét các ví dụ sau:

 Many of her friends live abroad.
 Many of them live abroad.
 Much of the work was done by me.
Much & Many; Little & Few; A lot, A lot of,
Lots of & Plenty

 Much of it was done by me.

 We haven’t got many (cartons of milk) / a lot.
 There isn’t much (flour) / a lot.
 There are no tigers in this country.
If we have a pronoun or a determiner plus a noun after many or much, we need of, as
in first and second examples above. Many and much can be used alone, as in the third
and fourth instances. The same is true of (a) few and (a) little
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Ví dụ minh họa cho trường hợp (a) few and (a) little
 (Only) a few of us stayed here.
 (Only) a few stayed here.
 (Very) few of them realised what was going on.
 (Very) few can survive its attack.
 I drank (only) a little of that water.
 ‘Would you like to have some cheese?’ ‘Yes, (only) a little.’
 I remember (very) little of what he told me.
 I know (very) little about politics.
“No + a noun” means that there is not or there are not any.

Practice: Insert “a few of”, “no”, “many”, “a lot of”, “a little” in suitable gaps
a) I know __________ her relatives. (= Some of them.)
b) __________ dogs are admitted into the dining room. (= Dogs are not allowed in
the dining room.)
c) ‘Has he ridden __________ horses?’
Much & Many; Little & Few; A lot, A lot of,
Lots of & Plenty

d) ‘Yes, __________. About a hundred, I think.’

e) Use __________ this milk and __________ these eggs to make the cake. (= You
need only some.)
f) If a box of chocolates is empty, we say that there are __________ chocolates.