English Class 14

Teacher Rodrigo

What do all these things have in common?

Water chocolate sand coffee

Meat money rice

Juice ice cream butter bread

Answer: They are uncountable!

Yes, including money. You don’t say: “I need three moneys”

Look at the difference:

Glass of water bar of chocolate dune of sand cup of coffee

 Kilo of Meat dollars cup of rice

Glass of juice ice cream cone grams of butter rolls

Quando acrescentamos algum tipo de medida, aí sim passam a ser substantivos contáveis!

Tá, mas e daí?

Daí, que se estamos falando de coisas contáveis ou incontáveis, a situação fica bem diferente:

How Many X How Much

A few X A little
Many X Much X A lot of X A lot X Very
Some
 Oooooohhh “How many” you count!
Oh Oh Oh Oooh “How much” you don’t!

OK. That was horrible

But this is the basic principle. We use “how many” to ask about countable nouns and “how
much” to ask about uncountable ones.

Ex:
How many friends do you have?
How many bars of chocolate did the kids eat?
How many books do you usually read every year?

How much water do you drink every day?

How much money will she need for the trip?
How much food can we buy at the supermarket?

Tip: It’s easy to notice the difference because you can translate “how many” as “quantos” and
“how much” as “quanto”

Exercise 1: - Complete with How much or How many.

1. __________________ money do we need?

2. __________________ cars are we taking?
3. __________________ glasses of wine did you drink?
4. __________________ rice do you want?
5. __________________ CDs are there here?

But how about the answers to these questions?

Well some answers may be obvious:

How many friends do you have?

I have 10 friends

How many books did you read?

I read 4 books.

Even with uncountable nouns, we can add a measure and answer correctly:

How much water do you drink every day?

I drink four glasses of water

How much money do you need?

I need R$100,00

But, we can also use the words: “little” and “few” to help with these answers:

Both words can mean “pouco”, but “few” is used for countable nouns and “little” is used for
uncountable ones

I ate a few bananas for breakfast

I want just a little sugar in my coffee, please

OBS: “A little”, “a few”, “little” “few”

Embora pareça que não faz diferença nenhuma, a presença do artigo “a” antes de
“little” e “few” é de extrema importância. Observe os exemplos abaixo:

I can’t go out with my friends tonight. I have little money.

It’s raining and I want to go home. I’ll take a taxi because I have a little money.

It’s very good to have a few friends who you can trust.
It’s very sad to have few friends.

A presença do artigo “a” confere uma conotação positiva à frase, enquanto a ausência
dele confere uma conotação “negativa”

Complete with: a little / little / a few / few

1) I have ____________ water left. There's enough to drink.

2) I have __________ good friends. I'm not lonely.

3) He has ___________ education. He can't read or write, and he can hardly count.
4) There are ____________ people she really trusts. It's a bit sad.

5) We have _____________ time at the weekend. Would you like to meet?

6) Julie gave us  ___________ apples from her garden. Let’s eat them?

7) She has _________ confidence. She has a lot of trouble talking to new people.

8) There are _______ women politicians in the UK. Many people think there should be more.

9) It's a pity, but the hospital has __________ medicine. They can't help many people.

10) I've got __________ cakes to sell. Would you like one?

11) There's _________ milk left in the fridge. It should be enough for our coffee.

12) _________ children from this school go on to university, unfortunately.

13) Do you need information on English grammar? I have _______ books about the topic if you
would like to read them.

14) She's lucky. She has ________ problems.

15) London has ____________ sunshine in the winter. That's why so many British people go on
vacation to sunny places!

16) There's _________ spaghetti left. Let’s eat it tonight?

17) There are _________ shows on television that I want to watch. I prefer to download a film
or read a book.

18) He has ________ free time. He hardly ever even calls his mother!

19) Unfortunately, I have ___________ problems at the moment.

20) Are you thirsty? There's ____________ juice left in this bottle, if you want to drink it.

Now look at this:

I have many friends

I have a lot of friends
I drink much water
I drink a lot of water
 AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!! What’s the difference?????

Calm down. There’s no difference. You can use “a lot of” to substitute both “many” and
“much” in affirmative or negative sentences.

Obs: No, you can’t ask “How a lot of”. This substitution doesn’t exist.

But be careful: Look at this difference:

I drink a lot of water every day.

I work a lot.

“A lot of” and “a lot” are similar, but “a lot of” is used to talk about quantity and “a lot” is used
to talk about intensity.

Work a lot eat a lot love a lot

And remember:
 You can’t use it every time you want to say “muito”

“Very” is only used before adjectives. Very good, very bad, very strong, very intelligent, very
hot, very cold, very young, very beautiful, very interesting, very crazy, very nice…

It can be used to talk about a large quantity, but only followed by the word “much”, as an
alternative to the expression “a lot”

I worked a lot yesterday

I worked very much yesterday.

Thank you very much.

Thanks a lot.

Another curious fact:

Já notou como no Português, temos o péssimo hábito de colocar a palavra “um” antes de
substantivos incontáveis?

Vou tomar um café.

Eu quero um sorvete.
Preciso tomar uma água.
Quando eu tiver um dinheirinho, eu compro.

No inglês, não podemos utilizar nem a palavra “one” nem o artigo “a” antes de palavras
incontáveis. Dessa forma, utilizamos a palavra “some” (algum), que dá o sentido de “um
pouco”. Dessa forma, temos nos exemplos acima:

I will drink some coffee.

I want some ice cream.
I need to drink some water.
When I have some money, I’ll buy it.
Exercise:

Change the sentences below to English:

a) Eu quero um pouco de açúcar no meu café, por favor.

b) Quanto chocolate você comeu?

c) Eu estudei muito para a prova.

d) Nós gostamos de assistir muitos filmes.

e) Eu gostaria de uma água, por favor.

g) Eu gostaria de um copo de água, por favor.

h) O dia hoje está muito quente.

i) Eu não cozinhei muita comida.

j) Você trabalha muito.

k) Nós precisamos de um pouco de luz.

l) Não posso estudar porque tenho pouco tempo.