Much / many

The words much and many mean a lot of.

 If a noun is in singular, we use much

Example:
much money

 If a noun is in plural, we use many

Example:
many friends

Use of much / many

In everyday English, we normally use much / many only in questions and negative clauses.

Example:
How much money have you got?
Carla does not have many friends.

In positive clauses with so, as or too, we also use much / many.

Example:
Carla has so many friends.
She has as many friends as Sue.
Kevin has too much money.

In all other positive clauses, however, we prefer expressions like a lot of / lots of.

Example:
Carla has a lot of / lots of friends.
Kevin has a lot of / lots of money.

In formal texts, however, much / many are also common in positive clauses. This you will
notice for example when you read English news.

Countable / Uncountable Nouns

In connection with much / many people often speak of countable nouns and uncountable
nouns.
Countable nouns have a singular and a plural form. In plural, these nouns can be used with
a number (that's why they are called 'countable nouns'). Countable nouns take many.

Example:
100 friends – many friends

Uncountable nouns can only be used in singular. These nouns cannot be used with a
number (that's why they are called 'uncountable nouns'). Uncountable nouns take much.

Example:
100 money – much money

Note: Of course you can count money – but then you would name the currency and say that
you have got 5 euro (but not „5 money“).

Much or Many?
We use use much and many in questions and negative sentences. They both show an
amount of something.

Use 'Much' with uncountable nouns

We use much with singular nouns.

Question: "How much petrol is in the car?"

Negative clause: "We don't have much time left."

Use 'Many' with countable nouns

We use many with plural nouns

Question: "How many people were at the meeting?"

Negative clause: "Not many of the students understood the lesson."

Use a 'A lot of' and 'Lots of' with both

Both mean a large amount. We use them with countable and uncountable nouns. A lot of is
a little more formal sounding than lots of.

Countable:

"A lot of people work here."

"Lots of people work here."
Uncountable:

"There was a lot of snow last night."

"There was lots of snow last night."

Now decide which word is needed to complete these sentences:

 1 - How ___ kittens did your cat have?

many

much

 2 - There are not ___ dishes left to clean.

much

many

 3 - Why was there so ___ smoke in the room?

many

much

 4 - There were so ___ people on the bus I got off and walked.

many

much

 5 - We don't see ___ birds in winter.

 much

many

 6 - How ___ money should I save?

many

much

 7 - We couldn't think of ___ good ideas.

many

much

 8 - Does this TV use ___ electricity?

much

many

 9 - Is our teacher going to give us ___ homework?

many

much

 10 - There's ___ information to remember.

 a lot of

much

many

Exercise
Decide whether you have to use much or many.

1. ________ cars
2. ________ music
3. ________ pictures
4. _________ flowers
5. __________ milk
6. __________ numbers
7. __________ Money
8. ________ tea
9. _______girls
10. ________pencils