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Lessons>Everyday English>Grammar
Exercises>Quantifiers
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Quantifiers Exercises - English Grammar Test
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Try the exercise #1 - Intermediate
Try the exercise #2 - Upper Intermediate
Usage of quantifiers:
A few and few, a little and little
Graded Quantifiers
Some or Any?
Something, Anything, Someone, Anyone
etc.
Enough
A few and few, a little and little
These expressions show the speaker's attitude towards the quantity
he/she is referring to.
A few (for countable nouns) and a little (for uncountable
nouns) describe the quantity in a positive way:
- "I've got a few friends" (= maybe not many, but enough)
- "I've got a little money" (= I've got enough to live on)
Few and little describe the quantity in a negative
way:
- Few people visited him in hospital (= he had almost no
visitors)
- He had little money (= almost no money)
Graded Quantifiers
They are like comparatives and hold a relative position on a
scale of increase or decrease.
With plural countable nouns: |
| many |
more |
most |
With uncountable nouns: |
| much |
more |
most |
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With plural countable nouns: |
| few |
fewer |
fewest |
With uncountable nouns: |
| little |
less |
least |
Examples:
· There are many people
in Poland, more in India, but the most people live in
China.
· Much time and money
is spent on education, more on health services but the most
is spent on national defense.
· Few rivers in Europe
aren’t polluted.
· Fewer people die
young now than in the nineteenth century.
· The country with the
fewest people per square kilometre must be Australia.
· Scientists have little
hope of finding a complete cure for cancer before 2010.
· She had less time
to study than I did but had better results.
· Give that dog the least
opportunity and it will bite you.
Quantifiers with countable and uncountable nouns
Some adjectives and adjectival phrases can only go with uncountable
nouns (salt, rice, money, advice), and some can only go with countable
nouns (friends, bags, people). The words in the middle column can
be used with both countable and uncountable nouns.
| How much? |
How much? or How many? |
How many? |
| a little |
no/none |
a few |
| a bit (of) |
not any |
a number (of) |
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some (any) |
several |
| a great deal of |
a lot of |
a large number of |
| a large amount of |
plenty of |
a great number of |
| a large quantity of |
lots of |
a majority of |
Note: much and many are used in negative and question
forms.
Example:
· How much money have
you got?
· How many cigarettes
have you smoked?
· There's not much
sugar in the cupboard.
· There weren't many
people at the party.
They are also used with too, (not) so, and (not) as
There were too many people at the party.
It's a problem when there are so many people.
There's not so much work to do this week.
In positive statements, we use a lot of:
· I've got a lot
of work this week.
· There were a lot of
people at the concert.
Next page
Try the exercise #1 - Intermediate
Try the exercise #2 - Upper Intermediate
Back to Grammar Table
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