Hi friends I am Niharika and welcome back to a new lesson. In today’s lesson we are
gonna look at Adjectives comparing equal quantities. Now in English, we do compare. We compare
things, we compare people. But what exactly are the phrases that we use, when we tend
to compare equal things? Well, that’s what we are gonna learn in today’s lesson. There’s
a certain pattern that we follow in English in order to compare equal things. Now it can
be equal things or just about the same. And what is that pattern, let’s have a look?
It’s the word “as” followed by the adjective indicating quantity and then followed by the
noun that you’re comparing and then followed by the word “as” again. So let’s go
through this again, it’s as plus adjective indicating quantity followed by the noun and
then followed by the word “as” again. Now in certain cases it’s okay to skip the
noun especially when you know that what exactly are you talking about, it’s okay to let
go that noun. We will understand this better in the examples and also another thing that
you really need to keep in mind is the type of adjective that you use indicating quantity,
always depends on the noun that you’re comparing, whether that noun is countable or whether
that noun is uncountable. So countable nouns are the nouns that you can count, whereas
uncountable are the nouns that you really can’t count on your fingers. So let’s
get started with some examples using or comparing countable nouns. Now the phrases or the adjectives
that you would use to compare countable nouns are, As many as or another one is As few as, so now let’s
go through the examples here. The first one. They have as many children as we do, so here
we are comparing equal number of children, maybe we have three children and guess what
even they have three children. So we are comparing equal quantities and to do so we are following
this pattern here, so they have as, the word as followed by the adjective many, that indicates
quantity and then followed by the noun and again followed by the word as, so they have
as many children as we do. Another example here, John has as few books as Jane, so again
you can count the number of books that you have. Now probably here John counted the number
of books that he has, so when he counted, he had like just eight books, whereas Jane
had nine books. So though they are not exactly equal number of books, but they are kind of
same. He just has eight books and she has nine books, so it’s almost the same. Again
you are comparing almost the same number of books here, And how do you do that? By using
the same format, which is John has, the word as, few is the adjective indicating quantity
followed by the noun and then followed by the word as again, so John has as few books
as Jane. Let’s have a look at the third example here, They have as many customers
as we do, so we are a big company and we have a lot of customers. We can count the number
of customers or clients that we have, But guess what even our competitors, even they
have equal number of customers that we do, so again we are comparing equal quantities.
So what phrase do we use? They have as many as your adjective indicating quantity, customers
is your noun and then followed by the word as. Last example for you is, I have three
sisters. Maybe I’m talking about the number of sisters that i have, i have three sisters,
that’s as many as you have, so if you observe here, i have three sisters. So we are having
a discussion about the number of sisters that we have, but if you look at the sentence here,
that’s as is as, many is your adjective indicating quantity. And then where’s the
noun? Oh! You skipped the noun. You just end it with the word as, why did we skip the noun?
Well, the reason because, we know what we are talking about, so it’s not necessary
that I’m gonna say, Oh! I have three sisters that’s as many sisters that you have, not
necessary , we know that we are talking about sisters, so it’s okay to skip the noun,
so that’s exactly the reason, why we are just using the phrase as many as you have.
So always remember when we are comparing nouns and if its countable nouns then we would use,
as many as or as few as. And now let’s have a look at some examples using or comparing
uncountable nouns. So we have certain examples here that would help you to understand comparing
uncountable nouns. Now remember the adjectives or the phrases that we end up using to compare
uncountable nouns are, As much as and the other one is As little as. So uncountable
nouns are the nouns that you really can’t count, so let’s have a look at the examples
here, John eats as much food as Peter, so we are using the same formula to compare equal
quantities, so John eats, the word as is much adjective indicating quantity, food is your
noun and then you end it with the word as, so John eats as much food as Peter. Well you
can’t really count food, can you? Oh! This is one, this is two, this is three, we can’t
do that, food is uncountable, so we are using the adjective much. Next one, she has as little
patience as me. Oh! Yes i do not have any patience, i lose out completely. So here i
am comparing with her of course the amount of patience that we have, so patience, you
can’t really count patience. So patience is an uncountable noun and we would use the
same format, she has as middle as the adjective indicating quantity, patience is your noun
and then you end it with the word as. Next one they have got as little water as we do,
so probably we have very little water in our house. And guess what; even she has almost
the same amount of water that we have left with, so again we are comparing almost the
same quantity. They have got as little is your adjective, water is your noun and then
you end with the word as. And then the last one, Well, I’m not hungry; maybe i have
eaten too much, so I’m not hungry. I have had as much as she has, so probably, she’s
had a lot of food and she informed this to her mom, look I’m not hungry, i ate too
much. Now i am comparing myself to her because even i ate the same amount of food that she
did, so here I’m saying, I’m not hungry. I have had as much is the adjective and then
you end it with the word as, where’s the noun? Isn’t it obvious that we are talking
about food? So here as i mentioned again, it’s okay to skip the noun especially when
you know what exactly you are talking about, it’s like inevitable. So I’m not hungry,
i have had as much as she has had, so this is the way we will end up using or comparing
countable or non-countable nouns. Now if you have understood this then go ahead take a
test and let me know how much did you score. I’ll be back with a new lesson. Till then you take care