Life

Upper Intermediate Unit 4b(1)

Expressions of quantity (1): lots, much, many, little, few

Presentation
You use lots of (or a lot of ), much, many, a little and a You can use many in affirmative statements which are
few to talk about quantities: more formal (and often written): Many people agree
on the solution (formal). A lot of people waste water
Uncountable Plural nouns
(everyday).
nouns
Questions How much …? How many …? little / a little / few / a few
Large quantities lots of / a lot of lots of / a lot of, many
You use little/a little and few/a few to talk about small
Small quantities (a) little, not (a) few, not many quantities in affirmative statements. A little and a few
much
have a positive meaning. Little and few have a negative
meaning:
lots of / a lot of
There’s a little water left in the jug. J
Use lots of or a lot of to talk about large quantities. Lots
of is less formal than a lot of: There’s little water left in the jug. L
Lots of experts agree. = A lot of experts agree. A few experts believe there is no water shortage. J
Do not use of when there is no noun, for example, in Few experts believe there is no water shortage. L
short answers:
not
TIP   much/not many have a similar meaning to very
How many people believe this? Say A lot. (don’t say A lot of.) little/very few:

much / many There isn’t much time. = There’s very little time.
You usually use much/many in:
too many / too much / too few / too little
• questions: How many countries are affected? How
Use too much/too many to talk about a bigger quantity
much water do they have?
than you want or need: Too much water is wasted. Too
• negative statements to talk about small quantities: many countries will have a water shortage. You’ve got too
People don’t pay much money for water. Not many much food on your plate. Put some back.
countries have a lot of water.
Use too little/too few to talk about less than you want
You can also use not much and not many in short answers: or need: Too little sleep can be very bad for you. Too few
How many countries will have a lot of water? Not many. senior jobs in the world of finance go to women.
You don’t normally use much in affirmative statements.
You normally use a lot/lots. Say We’ve got a lot of juice in
the fridge. (don’t say We’ve got much juice in the fridge.)

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 Upper Intermediate Unit 4b(1)
Exercises

Exercises
1 Complete the pairs of sentences using the words in bold.
little / a little 6 They go to lots of nightclubs.
1 I ’ve got little sympathy with anyone too many / a lot of
who breaks the law! They should go to prison! too many
7 people take courses throughout
2 I ’ve got a little time, so tell me what’s their lives to improve their qualifications.
on your mind.
8 a lot of people are looking for the
much / many same job as me. It’s really annoying!
3 How many people visit your blog? few / not much
4 H
 ow much time do you spend 9 There are few wild animals left in
online? this part of the world.
lot / lots 10 not much money is given to protecting
5 A
 lot of people their age also go to animals in this part of the world.
nightclubs.
2 Look at the pictures. Use the words in the box to complete the sentences.

a few a lot of lots not many too too many too much

1 2 3

4 5 6

1 a lot of people came to watch 4 There are too few signposts

the fireworks. round here.
2 The roads have too many cars but 5 too many people came but not
a few cyclists. very many.
3 lots for me, please! 6 That’s too much for me.
3 There is one word missing in each sentence or conversation. Write it in.
a
1 I think there’s little cheese left. Would you like some?
Λ
many
2 Count how questions you answered correctly.
3 There are many people here. I only invited ten. Whoinvited
are the other fifteen?
of
4 A lot new mobile technology comes out every week.
5 There are only afew
possibilities left to us. Which should we choose?
a
6 A: Do you like her new album?   B: I like lot of the songs but not all of them.
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