Expressing quantity
Lots of people get confused about the differences between ‘much’, ‘many’ and ‘lots of’ in English. Hopefully these handy hints will help you to know which to use when describing a large quantity.
Much / Many
'Much' and 'Many' are used in negative sentences and questions. 'Much' is used with uncountable nouns such as 'rice':
Examples:
How much money have you got?
There isn't much rice left.
'Many' is used for countable nouns such as 'apples':
Examples:
How many people came to the party?
There aren't many apples on the table.
A Lot Of / Lots Of
'A lot of' and 'lots of' can be used with both countable and uncountable nouns. 'A lot of' and 'lots of' are used in positive sentences:
Examples:
There is a lot of water in that jar.
He's got lots of friends in London.
Source: www.esl.about.com
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