Grammar- ‘much’, ‘many’, ‘a lot’ & ‘too’, ‘too much’, ‘too many’

Many times people come across problems when they have to use the above words in the correct way. Take a look at the uses below, and see if you can finally get rid of these ‘silly mistakes’:

‘much’, ‘many’, ‘a lot’

• We usually use ‘a lot of’ in positive and negative sentences and questions. ‘A lot of’ is used with uncountable and plural countable nouns
• They’ve bought a lot of things for the reception.
• We will need a lot of people to give us a hand.
•  Did you really earn a lot of money from that deal?
• We usually use ‘much’ in negative sentences
• I don’t have much time for you today.
• NOTE:  ‘much’ can also be used in positive and questions, but in these cases the sentences become formal. For informal use, we normally prefer ‘a lot of’ in positives and questions.
• We usually use ‘many’ in negative sentences and questions
• I haven’t got many emails to write today.
• Have you taken many days off in the summer?
• NOTE:  ‘many’ can be used also in positive sentences, but in these cases the sentences become formal. For informal use, we normally use ‘a lot of’ in positive sentences.

 ‘too’, ‘too much’, ‘too many’

Remember – ‘too’ has a negative meaning. It does not have the same meaning as ‘really’

Example : NOT ‘the assistant was too kind’ BUT ‘the assistant was really kind’

TOO + adjective	It is too noisy in here to concentrate NOT – it’s too much noisy in here
TOO + adverb	They speak too quickly – I can never catch what they say NOT – they speak too much quickly
TOO MUCH + uncountable noun	Don’t drink too much wine else you won’t be able to stand up
Verb + TOO MUCH	I am working too much lately and need to take a few days off
TOO MANY + plural countable noun	We received too many complaints last week. We really need to find where the problem lies