Units of quantity - Part 2: many, much, few, a lot, plenty, every, and whole

Chris:	Emily, do you typically do the whole family thing at Thanksgiving? Do you cook for your many friends or do you tend to stay by yourself?
Emily:	Why do you ask? We’re not even close to Thanksgiving.
Chris:	I was just curious.
Emily:	I guess I haven’t given it much thought. Usually, I do the family thing. Thanksgiving is THE family holiday after all.
Chris:	To me, it’s a holiday with plenty of food. That’s what I like about it.
Emily:	Figures. And here I thought it was about giving thanks for all our many blessings!
Chris:	Yeah….mostly for food. A whole turkey, plenty of mashed potatoes, a little stuffing, a lot of gravy, many sweet potatoes and a little pumpkin pie, oh my.
Emily:	I’m getting hungry.
Chris:	I recently heard that one way to cook the Thanksgiving turkey is in the oven... overnight! I think I might try that this year.
Emily:	You know that this is the perfect way... to die, right?
Chris:	Oh, come on, it’s perfectly safe. You just put it in the oven at 200 degrees before you go to bed and when you wake up, well, let’s just say the whole thing is done. This way you don’t have to stay home all day watching football until the bird is done.
Emily:	Oh boy. If you do it like that, the inside of the turkey would rot before it cooked and you’d spend Friday in the emergency room for food poisoning instead of at the mall hunting for the best shopping deals of the year, like every other American. And that is if, IF, you don’t burn your house down while you’re asleep.
Chris:	My uncle Freddy has done it for years, and he’s still alive.
Emily:	I cannot believe that I’m taking cooking advice for “dry” turkey from your mysterious uncle Freddy.
Chris:	Hey, he makes the best orange-cranberry relish in the world. A lot of fresh cranberries, many oranges, a few jalapeños, not too much sugar, celery, and ginger, a little bit of onion, mixed at the end with many mint leaves and a lot of pecans.
Emily:	That is a famous and delicious recipe that Martha Stewart, the goddess of cooking, made available online for free and it does not cost an arm and a leg to make.
Chris:	Oh.
Emily:	You’re aware that the pilgrims at the very first Thanksgiving in the 17th century didn’t even have turkey for Thanksgiving dinner, right? That aspect of Thanksgiving originated during the American Revolution, much later.
Chris:	You know, it has always been a little bit of a mystery to me why turkey has become the one essential ingredient in every Thanksgiving dinner, so much so that we call it Turkey Day. The pilgrims landed in the New World in 1620 and celebrated their survival with the Native Americans in 1621 by feasting on whole deer, shellfish, and corn.
Emily:	You’re right. Thanksgiving has evolved quite a lot since it was first celebrated. It was finally declared a national holiday in 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln. Later, in the early 20th century, foods like turkey, cornbread, and stuffing were a few recipes taught to new immigrants, as a way of Americanizing them.
Chris:	Well this year, my Thanksgiving is going to evolve a little more with Uncle Freddy’s overnight turkey.

Units of quantity - Part 2: many, much, few, a lot, plenty, every, and whole

In this lesson, we will learn about the units of quantity many and much, few and little, a lot and plenty, every, and whole.

I. Many and Much

Using many or much depends on the noun it is describing. Many is used with countable nouns. When using many, the noun should be in the plural form.

I have many t-shirts in my closet. T-shirts are countable. Do you know how many movies she has made? Movies are countable.

Much is used with uncountable nouns. When using much, the noun must be in its singular form.

There’s not much time left in the game. Time is uncountable. How much milk would you like in your coffee? Milk is uncountable.

II. Few and Little

Few and little have negative meaning. They mean not many and not much. Few is used with countable nouns, little with uncountable nouns.

There are few members in the club this year. There’s not many members in the club this year. There’s little coffee left in the pot. There’s not much coffee left in the pot.

III. A Lot and Plenty

A lot signifies a large amount or quantity of a noun. Plenty signifies that there is more than enough of a noun.

After winning the lottery, she had a lot of people asking for money. A large amount of people were asking her for money. I don’t need dessert, I had plenty of food for dinner. I had more than enough food for dinner. I can’t eat dessert.

IV. Every and Whole

Every and whole are used to quantify all of a set of nouns. Every is used with singular, countable nouns. Whole is used with uncountable nouns or singular countable nouns to mean the entire thing.

I go to bed every night at 10 PM. Night is a countable noun. The student was asleep the whole time. Time is an uncountable noun. I ate a whole box of cookies. I ate all the cookies in the entire box.

Units of quantity - Part 2: many, much, few, a lot, plenty, every, and whole

Fill in the blank with many, much, few, little, a lot, or plenty.

Units of quantity - Part 2: many, much, few, a lot, plenty, every, and whole

Fill in the blank with every or whole.