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hi everybody my name is alicia in this
lesson i'm going to introduce some
question and answer patterns that you
can use with how much and how many this
will be a lesson also uh to remind you
about countable and uncountable nouns so
let's get started okay
so first i want to review when to use
how much and how many these two key
points to begin the questions for today
first of all let's look at how many
remember we use how many when we want to
make a question about countable noun so
we use how many with countable nouns
remember a countable noun is a noun we
can count with numbers like one two and
three so to make a regular
countable noun we simply use the regular
noun and add an s sound to the end of it
so this is for regular
nouns to make the plural form of a
regular countable noun so for example
marker becomes markers with an s sound
shirt becomes shirts for example we
simply add an s for regular nouns
however there are some nouns that have
an irregular plural form for today a
couple that i want to focus on are these
two
person so when we count a person we say
one person but the plural form is people
so one person two three four people this
is an example of an irregular
countable noun
another one is child so we say one child
but the plural form is children so two
children three children a lot of
children uh of course we can't say kids
but that's slightly a different it's
kind of just a different word to use so
when you use the word child please
remember to use children as the plural
form so these are a couple good ones to
focus on for today we'll use these
in sentences with how many because
they're countable nouns
then
how much is the second part for today's
lesson the second kind of question
beginning expression
so how much is used with uncountable
nouns uncountable nouns remember our
nouns we cannot count so there are
things uh you might also know the
expression mass nouns as well so some
common examples of uncountable nouns are
like air beer wine money time so we
can't count these however we can count
the individual units inside these nouns
so with that in mind let's begin by
looking at how many questions so these
are going to be questions with countable
nouns they all begin with how many these
are just a few sample questions i tried
to make a few samples that you could
maybe use in your everyday life and then
i made a big list of some sample answers
some sample responses to these so let's
begin
first one
how many something some things do you
have so i've included an s in a
parentheses here because uh for regular
nouns we will use the plural form here
with an s sound at the end
however if you're using an irregular
noun you might not need an s here for
example if you want to ask how many
children do you have you don't need an s
here so that's why this s is here in the
parentheses but for each of these
examples the s is here to remind you
that you need to use the plural form you
can't use the singular form in this so
if the question is how many children
do you have that's correct but if you
say how many child
do you have it's incorrect you need to
use the plural form when you're asking
each of these questions
so first one how many
some things do you have second one how
many are there so you can use this in a
room this is a very general question i
think
how many some things are coming to the
event so i've used a very very general
event planning question here you could
change event to party or barbecue or
meeting whatever any kind of um
gathering you can use this question for
finally how many do you need a shopping
question so these are very very general
questions like i said but they all use
how many so i want to talk about a lot
of examples for your answers to these
questions first one i want to look at
this group right here for sample answers
for how many do you have how many of
something do you have
um these answers will use some
quantifiers so a quantifier is an
expression we use to explain uh the
amount of something so uh here first one
i have a few a few so this is maybe like
three or four for example and again
we're using the plural form here to
answer the question so how many
um movies do you have for example i have
a few movies so don't forget this plural
form at the end of the sentence as well
here our quantifier is a few a few
uh if however you would like to use a
specific number to answer the question
you know the answer using a specific
number you can do that so for example
how many children do you have i have two
you can say that just fine here just a
number and you can finish the sentence
there i have two that's fine if you want
to include the noun again after that
that's fine too i have two children so
again use the plural form here or i have
two kids if you want to use a different
noun so if you want to use a specific
number fine here's a pattern to do that
um
another quantifier that i included here
is i have a couple and you'll notice i
included of here in parentheses as well
native speakers will drop of sometimes
sometimes we'll include it just depends
on how we're feeling both are okay so i
have a couple movies i have a couple of
movies both are fine here so a couple a
couple it sounds like two right two
people like a couple dating it sounds
like two people so
for me the image of a couple of
something is two of something or a very
small amount in other words okay
if however you have zero of that thing
make sure to use any in your answer i
don't have any so remember any is used
with a negative when you're making
negative statements don't do not is our
negative here so we use any i don't have
any and the plural form don't forget yes
you have zero of that thing but we still
need to use the plural form for uh
correct grammar
okay uh let's go on to the next question
how many somethings are there uh here we
can say there are again a specific
number there are five chickens for
example so here again a specific number
um and then
same thing here we can include the
plural form of the noun or you can just
finish your sentence finish your answer
with the number there are five for
example
another quantifier we can use is lots of
lots of there are lots of and then your
plural noun this one is actually quite
useful because we can use this one with
uncountable nouns as well so there are
lots of this is one you can use with
countable and uncountable nouns quite
handy okay
of course same thing if there are no if
there are zero of whatever noun you're
looking for you can use there aren't any
somethings there aren't any something so
there are not any we see the same any
pattern here there aren't any chickens
chickens is my example here so
there aren't any for example but again
don't forget your plural form at the end
okay now let's talk about an event some
kind of gathering a party a meeting
whatever
if you want to ask this question and you
need the answer for it you can use a
specific answer at the beginning of the
sentence a specific number so like five
people are coming is fine five people
are coming to the event if you like five
people are coming to the party
uh or you can just say the number five
that's fine or five are coming five
people as well any variation here as
long as you include a number on some
amount somewhere
okay
if you don't have kind of a positive
image of the number of people who are
coming you can try this expression i
don't think many
plural noun
are
coming so i don't think many people are
coming i don't think so this sounds
quite uh negative about the attendance
numbers at the event i don't think many
people are coming
okay another pattern
uh finally let's look at two patterns
you can use for this last question so
how many somethings do you need we can
use this i need a lot of something
at the end so i need a lot of cookies
for example here you can see um i've
used i need a lot of up here i said
there are lots of both of these are okay
to use with countable and uncountable
nouns so
i need a lot of money for example uh
money is an uncountable noun we can use
this quantifier with it as well
uh finally uh i need a handful
handful so if you can imagine like in
your hand the number of items that can
fit in your hand we can think of that as
a hand full a handful of something so
here it's the same idea so if you're
talking about small objects you can say
i need like a handful of markers for
example i need a handful of pieces of
paper maybe so this is usually something
we
use for like everyday items like maybe
office supplies or maybe art projects i
don't know
so we typically don't use this for big
items really because it's not easy to
imagine having a handful of i don't know
large items so you might hear it here
and there but generally we use it for
smaller things
so these are a few ways
you can answer
some how many questions and some of
these quantifiers like i said can be
used for uncountable nouns as well so
let's move on to that part let's look
then at some how much questions i have
just a few here and a couple notes as
well so um just three to introduce
similarly to the how many question with
how many somethings do you have we can
use how much
of the uncountable noun do you have so
here how much we use how much for an
uncountable noun how much money do you
have how much free time do you have for
example
the second question how much something
is there so how much wine is there how
much beer is there for example so um
this is another one that's kind of
parallel to this how many question
finally how much do you need how much
money do you need for your project for
example
so um i know that each of these starts
with how much um but one point to be
careful of many of my students have had
this problem when you answer these
questions and you want to use a positive
statement to answer the question
it's incorrect to use much when you do
that so for example how much money do
you have sometimes i'll hear students
say i have much money but that's
incorrect we can't use much when we're
making positive statements of quantity
so please be careful don't use much in a
positive reply okay
with that in your mind then let's look
at some sample answers for this okay so
how much to look at the how much
question and some answers for that you
could say i have some for example money
or i have some free time sum is a nice
one because actually sum
is another one we can use for both uh
countable and uncountable nouns so i
didn't include it over here there's not
much space but we can use sum for both
countable and uncountable nouns so i
have some cookies i have some chickens
that's good okay um then let's look at
another one i have a lot of so i
mentioned on this side we can use a lot
of with both countable and uncountable
nouns so here we see it again
also you'll notice in each of these
examples i'm not including an s at the
end of each of these so we can't count
these nouns so there's no plural form
that's there we don't use an s
at the end of our answer so please be
careful no s here okay continuing on if
there are zero or if there is zero
rather in this case of your uncountable
noun i don't have
any i don't have any money i don't have
any time so here's a way to say zero of
something we looked at that over here i
don't have any in this case it was an s
at the end with the plural form over
here no s i don't have any something no
s
okay another one so i mentioned here we
can't use much in a positive statement
of quantity however we can use much in a
negative statement of quantity so in
this sentence i don't have much time i
don't have much money we can use this
because our negative is right here i do
not i do not have much of something i
don't have much of another thing
so we can use it in this way
um one more i have just a little just a
little time today i have just a little
time today you can use just if you like
you can drop it too i have a little time
today just acts like an emphasis here i
have just a little time today sounds
like there's
it's very very small amount of time
okay let's move on to answers for this
next question how much something
something is there so
there's a lot of again i have this same
a lot of quantifier used so we can use
that here
again i have some as an answer so there
is some please note that i've got this
there is some there's some beer in the
fridge there's some wine in the fridge
for example
so not there are but there is because
it's an uncountable noun over here i
said there are
uh some number or there are lots of
because we're using the plural form over
here no plural form so there's which
means there is okay
um
let's go on to another one this is
another negative example so there is not
much so there's not much beer left
there's not much wine left for the party
so again we have this there is
and a negative not much there's not much
of something
okay finally how much of something do
you need i've included a couple casual
expressions to answer this question so i
need tons of tons of is a casual
expression which means a huge amount a
lot of a lot of a lot of something i
need tons
of we use an s here i need tons of
something
another one is i need a bunch of i need
a bunch of so a bunch imagine like a
bunch of flowers you can imagine like
several of something together so several
items together that we can grab like in
a group so a bunch of something um so
even though we say a bunch of we can use
this with uh uncountable nouns so like i
drank a bunch of wine last night for
example or i spent a bunch of money we
can use it in examples like that
so those are a couple of ways to answer
the uncountable version of this question
oh right so that's a lot of patterns uh
there are quite a few things to practice
here but please just keep in mind this
key point how many plus the plural form
of the noun is used for countable noun
question and answers and how much and
the regular form of the uncountable noun
is used for uncountable noun question
and answers so with some practice i
think this becomes a little bit easier
also watch out for these
irregular countable noun forms too all
right so with that i'll finish this
lesson here if you have any questions or
comments or you want to try to make an
example sentence please feel free to do
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