Escolhendo o quantificador ideal
Para responder as perguntas How much? e How many? determinados quantificadores podem ser utilizados junto a substantivos contáveis (amigos, pessoas); outros, com substantivos incontáveis (açúcar, chá, dinheiro); e alguns podem ser empregados com qualquer tipo de substantivo.
| Apenas com substantivos incontáveis | Com qualquer substantivo | Apenas com substantivos contáveis |
|---|---|---|
| a little | no, none, not any | a few |
| a bit of | some | a number of |
| any | several | |
| a great deal of | a lot of, lots of | a great number of |
| a large amount of | plenty of | a large number of |
Exemplos
- Would you like some tea and a few cookies?
- I always put a little milk and some carrots in my soup.
- He has several apples. I don't have any fruit at all.
- She has plenty of clothes for the winter.
- I recieved a large amount of feedback from my survey.
Uso de "Much" e "Many"
Much e many são principalmente utilizados em frases interrogativas e negativas. Eles também podem ser utilizados em frases afirmativas e negativas quando combinados com too e so. Nota: a palavra many pode ser utilizada individualmente em frases afirmativas, mas o termo much não pode. Much deve ser substituído nas frases afirmativas pelo termo a lot of ou lots of (tais expressões também podem substituir o termo many).
| Substantivos incontáveis | Substantivos contáveis |
|---|---|
| How much sugar do you have? | How many people came to the concert? |
| There's not much sugar at the store. | Not many people came to the concert. |
| I have too much sugar at home. | There were too many people at the concert. |
| I don't know what to do with so much sugar. | It's a problem when there are so many people. |
| I wish there was not so much sugar here. | There were not so many people last year. |
| There is a lot of sugar in candy. | There are many people who want to come. = There are a lot of people who want to come. |