Part 4.

GRAMMAR

How much / How many / There is / There are

Se utilizan para preguntar por cantidades de algo.

Si se trata de sustantivos contables, se aplica How many.

Si se trata de sustantivos incontables, se usa How much.

Estas expresiones siempre van seguidas de un sustantivo; luego, el verbo y el resto de la oración.

How many cars do you have?

¿Cuántos autos tienes?

How much money do you have?

¿Cuánto dinero tienes?

How much se utiliza también para preguntar precios.

How much is this car?

¿Cuánto cuesta este auto?

How much are the potatoes?

¿Cuánto cuestan las papas?

También se usan en forma genérica para preguntar "cuánto hay". En este caso, van seguidas del
sustantivo y luego, is / are there.

How many cars are there?

¿Cuántos autos hay?

How much money is there?

¿Cuánto dinero hay?

A estas preguntas se responde usando There is / are, dependiendo de si se trata de singular o

plural, como ya hemos visto en lecciones anteriores.

There are nine cars.

Hay nueve autos.

There is one dollar.

Hay un dólar.

Para hacer referencia a los sustantivos incontables, se pueden utilizar los envases o las medidas
de los envases que los contienen, los cuales sí son contables...

How much milk is there?

¿Cuánta leche hay?

There are three litres.

Hay tres litros.
There are three bottles.
Hay tres botellas.

There is - There are

We use there is and there are to say that something exists.

Positive Sentences
We use there is for singular and there are for plural.

 There is one table in the classroom.

 There are three chairs in the classroom.
 There is a spider in the bath.
 There are many people at the bus stop.

Contractions
The contraction of there is is there's.

 There's a good song on the radio.

 There's only one chocolate left in the box.

You cannot contract there are.

 There are nine cats on the roof.

 There are only five weeks until Christmas.

Negative Form
The negative is formed by putting not after is or are:

 There is not a horse in the field.

 There are not eight children in the school.
 There is not a tree in the garden.
 There are not two elephants in the zoo.
The Negative contractions are:

There's not = There isn't

There are not = There aren't

There Are with ANY

When we want to indicate that a zero quantity of something exists we use there
aren't any.

 There aren't any people at the party.

 There aren't any trees in my street.

We also use this structure with uncountable nouns:

 There isn't any water in the swimming pool.

 There isn't any sugar in my coffee.

Questions
To form a question we place is / are in front of there.

Again we use any with plural questions or those which use uncountable nouns.

We also use there is / are in short answers.

 Is there a dog in the supermarket? - No, there isn't.

 Are there any dogs in the park? - Yes, there are.
 Is there a security guard in the shop? - Yes, there is.
 Are there any polar bears in Antarctica? - No, there aren't.
 Is there any ice-cream in the freezer? - Yes, there is.

How Many with Are There

If we want to find out the number of objects that exist we use How many in the following
form:

How many + plural noun + are there (+ complement).

 How many dogs are there in the park?
 How many students are there in your class?
 How many countries are there in South America?
 How many Star Wars films are there?

Many is used with count nouns:

Q: How many apples are
there?

A: There are many apples in

this picture.

Q: How many chairs are

there?

A: There are two chairs.

Q: How many bees are

there?

A: Hundreds. Maybe
thousands!

Q: How many apples are

there in this picture?

A: There is only one apple.

Q: How many men are there

in this picture?

A: There aren't any. There is

only one woman.
 Much is used with noncount nouns:

Q: How much fruit is

there?

A: There's a lot of fruit.

Q: How much water is in

the glass?

A: It's almost full. There's

a lot of water in the glass.

Q: How much traffic is

there this morning?

A: There's a lot of traffic.

The cars aren't moving
very fast.

Q: How much fishing

does he do?

A: He does a lot of fishing

on the weekend.

Q: How much beer is

there in his glass?

A: There isn't any. It's all

gone.
 Count Nouns Noncount Nouns

Singular or Plural (Don't use in plural form)

car cars traffic

apple apples fruit

machine machines machinery

fact facts information

chair chairs furniture

dollar dollars money

minute minutes time

(Only use an article with (These plural count (These use "much")
these: a or the) nouns use "many")
It's important to understand the difference between noncount
and count nouns when using many and much. Noncount
nouns are often used to describe large categories while count
nouns are usually more specific.

Examples:

 There is a car in the street. (singular count noun)

 Question: How many cars are in the street?

 Answer: There are a few cars in the street (plural count noun)

 Question: How much traffic is there?

 Answer: There is a lot of traffic. (noncount noun)

Noncount nouns always use a singular verb. Count nouns are singular or
plural.

Much and Many are usually used with the negative:

Examples:

 There aren't many students in the classroom. (perhaps 4 or 5

students)
 There isn't much food in the refrigerator. ( a small amount of food)
Any + not, never, or without expresses zero:

Examples:

 There aren't any students in the classroom (zero)

 There isn't any food in the refrigerator. It's empty.
 He went outside without any shoes. (There are no shoes on his
feet.)
 They never want to eat any vegetables or drink any milk.

Much and Many are usually not used in the affirmative:

Examples:

 There are many apples in the basket. It sounds better to say...

 There are a lot of apples in the basket.

 There is much milk in the refrigerator. It sounds better to say...

 There is a lot of milk in the refrigerator.