When do we use Many and when do we use Much?
Hola muchachos! When do we use Many and when do we use Much?
It’s really simple. Listen to this episode and find out how you can use these words correctly! Enjoy :)
Transcript
Hey guys you are listening to English Made Simple, this is number 23. Numero veintitres.
Hola everyone, my name is Milena. Thank you for joining me. Yeey, episode 23. How is everyone doing? Hope you guys are doing well. Uhm…Hey guys, I hope you enjoyed the last 2 episodes, The 2 parts of Learn to Speak English with IELTS. I hope it was useful for everyone including the ones who are not taking the exam. There were some practical tips you could use. If this is the first time you are listening to the show, Welcome! And for the rest of you welcome for the 23rd time! Alrighty!
In this episode, we will learn when to use the word Many and when to say Much? Many and Much are something called quantifiers in English language. And when used before nouns, they imply a large quantities of something. But there is a rule. There is a rule when to use Many and when to say Much. So, I will give you a simple rule that will be so easy to remember, you will not believe how easy it is! You will remember this rule forever! Rule means regla in Spanish. It’s a ridiculously simple rule. I will tell you soon what it is, I promise.
I will also share 1 exception to this rule (just to make it a little bit complicated) at the end of the episode, so stay tuned and keep listening! There will also be some examples as well, as usual. So let’s start, shall we?
Oh uhm, but first, can I say hello to some new countries tuning in to this show? Yes I can, because it’s my show haha Hello to Russia, Privet and Zdrastvuyte! I’ve got some friends from Rusia here in Australia. Greetings also to: Morocco, Ecuador, Guatemala, India, Hong Kong and Singapore! I’ve got friends from India and Hong Kong, and got a friend from Singapore as well, here in Melbourne. What a mix of countries, and there are more countries that are listening to this show, actually close to 80 (ochenta) countries, I will mention them next time! Ok. Bit by bit. (poco a poco).
Also before we start, I want to say hello to a special listener (who is not my mum!), who left a really nice review on iTunes! The username is maxpycl who said my podcast is entretenido! Fun! Well, Muchas gracias amigo! After I read your review, I did a quick happy dance around the house haha Thank you so much! Glad you are enjoying the show! And of course, if the rest of you have a little bit of spare time, please leave a review on itunes, I would really appreciate it! That would be really cool.
Now, can we start Milena? Yes, yes we can!
So when do we use Many and Much?
And as I’ve mentioned before these are quantifiers. OK? In this episode I am going to explain when we use them before nouns. OK, there are other ways we can use many and much, but in this episode we are going to focus on using them before nouns.
So, it all depends if we are using it with Countable nouns or non-Countable nouns. (sustantivos contables o sustantivos no contables) What do you mean by countable Milena? Well, the best way to explain this amigos, is like this: To count, means contar. Something we can count, we use our fingers, we can use our fingers (nuestros dedos), I can count on my fingers until 10…and then I can count on my toes ahhaha until 10 as well (usando los dedos de mis pies) What are toes? Toes are on your feet – imagine this, we put shoes on our feet, we have toes on our feet, not fingers!!) In English we differentiate fingers and toes. And we don’t normally count with our toes, Ok, that was just a silly joke, I am just being silly. It is ridiculous. But we use our fingers to count. Ok guys?
So just imagine, anything with countable nouns, we can use our fingers to count them.
So let’s get on with this lesson.
Firstly, let’s talk about when we use the word MANY. If you imagine, in English Language plural, is very simple, we just add an S at the end a word or a noun, easy peasy! Easy peasy. It’s an English saying when something is really simple – saying means un dicho.
So, by adding the letter S at the end of the noun, we imply the word is plural.
For example: 1 pen, 2 pens. 1 book, 2 books. 1 phone, 2 phones, I have 1 friend, I have 2 friends. 1 chocolate cookie, 2 chocolate cookies with my coffee. Right, so.
I can say I have many books at home, ok. So, these are countable nouns. Something that we can count using our fingers…something that we can count using our hands.
I guess it’s quite self-explanatory for regular nouns. These are called regular nouns, when we add the letter “S” at the end. Just to make it a little bit complicated, there are irregular nouns as well. As I mentioned in my introduction, I used one of them…I said, feet. So that’s a plural. We have 2 legs and 2 feet we put shoes on our feet. One hand, two hands. One foot, two feet.
There is a funny saying in English, for people who cannot dance, it is said they can’t dance because they have 2 left feet hahah), I thought that’s quite funny!
Anyway…. Stop making a fool of yourself Milena. (para de ser aweonada Milena). Haha I have a lot of stupid jokes. But you’ll get used to it. But enough of stupid jokes.
More examples of irregular nouns, here they are. And these are the most common ones that you would use: 1 tooth, 2 teeth (dientes), And the most popular irregular nouns are, two that are really important: 1 woman, 2 women, 1 mujer, 2 mujeres. One man= Two men. It’s a bit faster when you say men in plural. One man. Two men.
Example: There are many men drinking in this pub. There are many women dancing in this club.
So, to summarise, the word MANY is used with countable nouns! Countable nouns are something we can count, using our fingers, 1 pen, 2 pens, 1 book, 2 books. And this is for the regular nouns. And there are irregular nouns, like a man and a woman. Women is the plural and men is the plural of man. Many men, many women!
Now….how about when we have nouns that we cannot count, with our fingers?
In that case we will have to use the word MUCH to describe that there is a lot, a lot of something.
For example, the word information. The word information is a noun. But we don’t say informations. Information doesn’t have a plural. Advice doesn’t have a plural. Money doesn’t have a plural.
So in that case, we will have to use the word MUCH, if we want to describe a lot of something, a lot of information. Ok. We would say too much information, too much money, or too much stuff.
So here is my example of the word much: I am trying not to give you too much information in one episode so that I don’t overwhelm you. (NOTE: no agobiarlos o no cansarlos) Ok that’s what the word “overwhelm” means.
So the word much used before the noun, a non-countable noun. Ok So something that we can’t count. Very simple, right?
Did you know we can also use the word MUCH when we talk about weight? Peso.
Much is also used for quantities in weight. How much sugar do you put in your coffee? How much sugar do you have with your tea? So talking about weight, peso.
How much money do you have? I’d like to know that. How much money do you have?
Alrighty, to summarise, the rule is: if we can count the nouns with our fingers, using our fingers, then in that case we use the word MANY to describe large amount of something. And if we can’t count them using our fingers, we use the word much. The example we used for this one, was information, there is also another example, knowledge, and stuff for example.
As I mentioned in my introduction, there is one exception to this simple rule. People! The word people! La gente.
Ok. In today’s English the correct expression is “many people”, mainly because we can say “How many people are here?” and can answer with a specific number referring the number of individuals. (“Well, only three people showed up!” (solo tres personas aparecieron)” Only 3 people showed up. How many people are here at the event? Well only three people showed up.
In that case we use MANY we don’t use MUCH.
But in the old English language, in the English language of the 16th century, I had to do a little bit of a research. They used to say much people. Ok, in the old English they would say “There were much people”. But in Today’s English we say Many people, How many people are here?
That’s one exception when we talk about people, we use Many.
And guess what? And if you are not sure when to use Many and Much then guess what? You can replace them with 3 words, a lot of or very informal lots of. A lot of becomes lots of when you are speaking in an informal way.
According to weon inteligente, the Cambridge Dictionaries Online: The word LOT by itself means Large Amount
So… wow, there is a lot people here today? There’s many people here today. Wow, that was a lot of information in this episode Milena, you gave us lots of information. Ok. You can use it like that, you don’t have to say Many or Much.
That’s one way to say.
Hey guys, if you have enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to share it with your friends! Sharing is caring, remember! If you enjoyed it and if you learnt something, then your friends will also learn! In the next episode, I will give you some tips on how you can answer a very common Job Interview question, I’ve also mentioned this question in the Episode 12. So go back, listen to episode 12 (How to be fluent in English), listen to that one and try to answer this question by yourself first, until next week!
The question was, the number one interview question that you’ll definitely be asked when you are applying for jobs, entrevista laboral, they will ask you: Tell me about yourself OK.
Now, go back to episode 12, try to answer this question by yourself until next week, I will give you some tips on how you can answer that question.
We are approaching the end of the episode….
Remember, all transcriptions are available on my website, www.www.englishmadesimple.net, if you have any questions on any of the topics we covered in this show, please let me know in the Facebook Group English Made Simple or on my website. This podcast is for YOU guys and I am here to help you learn! So let’s do this! Until next time, arriverdrci! That’s Italian for goodbye!