Learning English Grammar is always tricky and confuses students, particularly when talking about large quantities. In today’s English Lesson with Michelle, you will learn how to use the terms – Loads of, A lots of, Tons of, Hundreds of and Much and Many while talking about plural nouns in English. Pay close attention to this lesson so that you don’t make some common English speaking mistakes while talking about quantities.
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Complete Lesson Transcript :-
I don’t have many water. I have much chocolates. Is that how you speak? Or do you say, I have much water. I don’t have many chocolates. In this lesson we are learning how to find out to talk about quantities. My name is Michelle, stay tune with me to learn to talk about large quantities of something. So as I told you this lesson is all about learning quantities. When do we use ‘much’, when do we use ‘many’ when we do not use much and when we do not use many. What are the other options that you have? So let’s start with the first sentence that we have with us please read it along with me we don’t have ______ water. What should we write here? Should we write many or much? Well you should be writing much and what if you say we don’t have many water, why is it incorrect? The reason that it’s incorrect is, is because water, can you count water? Can you count the number of water in a glass? No you can’t. So that’s why water is an uncountable noun. So you cannot count water and that’s why we never say waters, because we cannot count water. Whatever we can count we add an S to it. So let’s see this is one marker if I have two more with me it’ll be markers because I can count 1, 2 & 3 but I cannot count water therefore I have written much. We can also say we don’t have much food. So can you count food? No, you can’t. Right, so let’s look at the next one that we have, how _____ cups are there? Many or much we are only left with many so it should be many and as I told you earlier cups is a countable noun because we have an S. Every noun for which you have a plural is countable. So cup, cups. Chocolate, chocolates. Light, lights but food foods no. So with food we have much and with what cups we have many all right. So now we have the next one I have _____ much work to do. Okay, for a moment let’s erase the _____ forget about it that it’s there and if you say I have much work to do. Do you think that’s correct? That is correct actually but the thing is we use it very rare it’s one of the most rare forms and grammar to use I have much work to do that just doesn’t sound natural. What sounds more natural? What can you place before much? Think of a word that you can place before much to make it sound more natural. You can say I have much work to do. What can you think when I do this I have too much work to do, right? So would you write ‘two’? No, you will write ‘too’ which means a lot the quantities more. So I have too much work to do now let’s look at the next one there are two _____ cars. Now work is an uncountable noun or a countable noun? It’s an uncountable noun because we cannot say works, I have too much works, that’s why we have the word much and not many we cannot say I have too many work to do. You will say I have too much work to do. Now the next one cars is a countable noun and that’s why you will say there are too many cars. What if we remove the too? There are many cars. Is that correct? Yes, this is a more common form than saying I have much work to do with much you should definitely add a ‘too’ but if you do not add a ‘too’ with many it’s alright it’s still a natural form. So you could say he visited many countries or there are too many cars or there are many cars both will be correct. Great! So now we move on to the next one, he visited two _____ _____ what can we write here? _____ _____ countries. So he has definitely visited more than one country and that’s why we have the S here which is a plural so that’s why we know that it’s countable it’s more than one. So what do we write here? Now it’s you know we’re done with using much and many we can definitely use it here he visited too many countries but is there another word that you can use here he visited lots countries, what should you write here? He visited lots of countries, right? So what do we mean by the word lot? Lot means a group of something and that’s why we say lot. So lots of means groups of countries. So he has possibly not visited one two or three he has definitely visited more than three around ten countries or maybe even more. So he visited lots of countries which is another word or a phrase that you can use to talk about large quantities. The next one that we have is he gave me _____ _____ rice. Now is rice a popular, oh sorry a countable noun or an uncountable noun? Can you say Rices? No, you can’t. So this will be a countable noun again, an uncountable noun I’m sorry. So here you could say he gave me lots of rice which will also be correct but let’s learn something new and instead of lots of you can say he gave me tons so tons you know is a measuring quantity in math and you can use it here also. He gave me tons of rice which means a large quantity or a big quantity. Great now we have the next question with us, how many whales did you see? So this question has the word many, can we use many for answering a question? If I say I saw many whales. Does that sound natural? No, it doesn’t. You cannot say I saw many whales just because the question has many it’s suggested that you do not use many in the answer all right so you could say I saw large number, a large number, I saw a large number of whales alright? Because we have a plural so we’ll also add an ‘of’. So I saw a large number of whales which means a big quantity again. Now something that I need you to be very careful about is as I told you we do not use many here I saw many whales and if you see here we don’t have much water and how many cups are there you can say there are many cups would you say that or you would say there are too many cups so we generally do not use many with positive statements alone. So you would not use many with positive statements alone. As I’ve given you this example there are too many cars instead of saying that there are many cars. Now let’s look at the first one, we don’t have much water or you’d say we have much water. Again this is also not used for positive statements much or many are generally used either for questions as you can see a question mark here or for negative statements. Do not, don’t Stands for do not which is a negative statement so do you use much and many for either negative statements or for questions. Let’s get back to where we were and here we are the next one, there were ¬¬¬_____ _____ animals in the field. So you could say that there were loads of animals in the field. So loads means something similar to lots and you could use either of them so load is something which is very heavy so there were loads of animals in the fields means there were a lot of a great number of animals in the field. The next one that we have is, they gave us _____ of food. What would you write here? Think about it? Which word is there on the board that you can relate to food and which is also uncountable because we do not say foods? So think of all the uncountable words that you have on the board you could say either water or you could say rice and as I have used tons off you could say the same one here they gave us tons of food or they gave us tons of rice. Great now we look at the last one that we have she’s been in _____ of movies. So you can also use numbers to talk about quantities you don’t always have to use these words, can you say she’s been hunt she’s been in hundred of movies? Can you say that? That is correct but with a small error can you think of the error she has been in hundred of movies? She’s been in hundreds of movies. So you’ll always address when you’re using a number to talk about quantities. So if I ask you have you been on a plane you’ll say yeah we’re on a plane thousands of times or hundreds of times but do not forget whenever you have a plural like movies you’ll always add an S and an of. So hundreds of movies, thousands of times like that. So here we have all the different ways to talk about large quantities. Don’t worry I’m going to come back with another lesson where I’m going to teach you how to talk about small quantities. I hope you learned a lot thank you so much for watching this lesson bye bye
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