Kies het juiste hoeveelheidswoord

Om de vragen How much? and How many? te beantwoorden worden bepaalde hoeveelheidswoorden gebruikt met telbare zelfstandig naamwoorden (friends, cups, people), andere met ontelbare zelfstandige naamwoorden (sugar, tea, money) en weer andere met alle soorten zelfstandig naamwoorden.

Test je kennis

Alleen met ontelbare zelfstandig naamwoorden	Met alle soorten zelfstandig naamwoorden	Alleen met telbare zelfstandig naamwoorden
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

Voorbeelden

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.

Gebruik van "Much" en "Many"

Much en many worden voornamelijk gebruikt in vragende en ontkennende zinnen. Ze worden ook gebruikt in bevestigende en ontkennende zinnen in combinatie met too en so. Let op: het woord many kan op zichzelf gebruikt worden in bevestigende zinnen, maar het woord much niet. Much wordt vervangen in bevestigende zinnen met a lot of or lots of (deze uitdrukkingen kunnen many ook vervangen).

Ontelbare zelfstandig naamwoorden	Telbare zelfstandig naamwoorden
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.