Much, many, a lot of

  • A2 · Elementary
  • Grammar lesson
  • 60 min
  • countable and uncountable

Countable and uncountable nouns: a lot of, much and many (How much bread? How many cookies?), too much and too many, and how we count uncountable things (a loaf of bread, a bowl of soup). From a birthday dinner that was too big to a dinner party for eight.

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muchmanya lot of

What's in the lesson

  1. 1Warm-up
  2. 2Reading: Hector's birthday dinnerReading comprehension
  3. 3What does it mean?Grammar exercise
  4. 4Find much, many and a lot ofGrammar exercise
  5. 5How much, many and a lot of workGrammar rule
  6. 6Countable or uncountable?Grammar exercise
  7. 7Before the partyGrammar exercise
  8. 8A loaf of…, a bowl of…Grammar exercise
  9. 9Questions for your teacherGrammar exercise
  10. 10Say it naturallySpeaking practice
  11. 11A dinner party for eightSpeaking practice
  12. 12About youGrammar exercise
  13. 13Wrap-up

Homework

  1. 1Homework: choose the right wordsGrammar exercise
  2. 2Homework: find the mistakeGrammar exercise
  3. 3Homework: a meal to rememberDiscussion

Two slides from the lesson

Warm-up

A few questions about you before we start.

  1. What is your favorite restaurant? What do you usually order there?
  2. Do you ever eat too much? When?
  3. Do you drink a lot of coffee or tea?

Grammar rule

How much, many and a lot of work

Countable and uncountable nouns

Countable nouns are things we can count. They have a plural, and we can use a or an: a cookie, two cookies. Uncountable nouns have no plural and no a or an: bread, coffee, money.

CountableUncountable
a lota lot of cookiesa lot of bread
questionsHow many cookies?How much bread?
negativesnot many cookiesnot much bread
a very big amountso many cookiesso much bread
more than is goodtoo many cookiestoo much bread

Some common uncountable nouns: food and drinks (bread, rice, soup, cheese, butter, coffee, water, milk), money, time, work, homework, music, news, information, advice, furniture, traffic, stuff, rain, snow. They take a singular verb: The news is good. My hair is long.

In a café, a coffee means a cup of coffee: Two coffees, please.
In positive sentences, use a lot of: I drank a lot of coffee. (Not usually I drank much coffee.) Many is possible in positive sentences too: Many people came.
so much / so many and too much / too many are fine in positive sentences: He drank so much coffee. He ate too many cookies.

Counting uncountable things

a loaf of bread · a bowl of soup · a piece of cake · a cup of coffee · a glass of water · a bottle of juice · a bag of rice

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