1. One way to use ‘much‘ and ‘many‘ is to talk about quantities of something. For example, in this sentence: ‘She has many friends‘ the number of friends is countable. ‘Many‘ is used instead of counting the exact number of friends and means ‘a large number of‘. We can also use ‘a lot of‘ instead.
In this sentence: ‘She doesn’t have much patience‘, patience cannot be counted so ‘much‘ is used. This sentence is NEGATIVE. We can also use ‘a lot of” in a NEGATIVE sentence. For example, ‘She doesn’t have a lot of patience‘. If we want to talk about something that cannot be counted in a POSITIVE way, then ‘a lot of‘ is often used. For example, ‘She has a lot of patience‘. This rule changes if ‘so‘ comes before ‘much’. For example, ‘She has so much patience‘. If we want to make a QUESTION, then ‘much‘ or ‘a lot of‘ can be used. For example, ‘Does she have much/a lot of patience?‘
2. Find the examples of ‘much’ and ‘many’ in this extract from The Cook (Chapter 9)
As usual, she worked beside the window. There were carrots to chop, swedes to smash and potatoes to peel and they all took so much time to do. Slowly, the sun rose between grey clouds. Around 8.15, the first children came through the security door and by 8.45 most of the children were in the playground.
She looked and looked for Billy, but there were so many children and none of them stayed in the same place for a second!
3. Use either ‘much’, ‘many’ or ‘a lot of’ to complete these sentences
a. How ______ was the train ticket?
b. She spent ______ money on new clothes.
c. She had ______ fun at her friend’s birthday party.
d. How ______ times did you watch ‘Titanic’?
e. I don’t know how ______ milk is in the fridge. Can you check?
f. He didn’t eat ______ for lunch – just a banana.
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