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  • Hi there, welcome to Harry's world of words and phrases and English in a minute.

  • Today we're looking at the English words 'much' and 'many'.

  • And when we talk about 'much' and 'many', we have to understand the difference between countable and uncountable nouns.

  • So, what do they mean?

  • So let's look at those first of all.

  • 'Countable' means something that has a natural plural.

  • For example, apple/apples, orange/oranges, car/cars.

  • And 'uncountable' is where they don't have a natural plural, so this one word is for the singular and the plural.

  • For example, 'tea' we don't say 'teas', 'coffee' we don't say 'coffees', 'petrol' we don't say 'petrols', 'rice' we don't say 'rices' and so on.

  • Okay, so as always rice in the singular, rice in the plural.

  • Petrol in the singular, petrol in the plural.

  • So, when we're using 'much' and 'many' we use one with countable and the other with, uh, uncountable.

  • So, when we're talking about 'much', we use it with uncountable.

  • 'How much rice do you have?'

  • 'How much petrol do you want?'

  • And when we're using 'many', we use it with countable.

  • 'How many apples have you got?'

  • 'How many cars have you got?'

  • 'How many oranges do you want?'

  • And another rule - just be very careful with this - when we use 'much' and 'many', we normally use those words when we're asking questions like, 'how much?' or 'how many?', and we also use them in the negative.

  • 'I don't have much.'

  • 'I don't have many.'

  • But, we don't use them in the positive.

  • Usually when we're talking about positives, we use the word 'a lot'.

  • 'I have a lot of apples.'

  • 'I have a lot of petrol.'

  • 'I have a lot of rice.'

  • So when we use 'a lot' we can use it with both countable and uncountable.

  • So, if you ever get stuck and you don't know whether to use 'much' or 'many', always fall back to the default position of using a lot.

  • Okay, so as always, subscribe to our channel and join us on www.englishlessonviaskype.com, and we'll catch up with you soon.

Hi there, welcome to Harry's world of words and phrases and English in a minute.

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