“A lot of”, “much” and “many”

    Mixed
    Spotlight 5/2023
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    Much is used with uncount­able nouns in negative sentences and ques­tions: ​

    • How much milk is there in the fridge?
    – Not much.​

    Many is used with countable nouns in negative sentences and questions: ​

    • How many eggs are there?
    – There aren’t many.​

    Many can be used in positive sentences. However, this sounds more formal: ​

    • The prime minister has many supporters.​

     

    A lot of or lots of (more informal) can be used in positive and negative sentences and questions with count­able and uncountable nouns: ​

    • We don’t eat a lot of potatoes but we eat lots of carrots.

    Although these phrases are normally interchange­able, you can only use quite + a lot of (not: quite + lots of): ​

    • I have quite a lot of old CDs.​

     

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