Grammar- Quantifiers

Content

Sound contrast

Grammar- Quantifiers

The /f/ sound

To form /f/ consonant sound, press the lower lip firmly against the upper front teeth. The sound is not voiced.

Here are some more words containing this sound

/f/        /ff/         /ph/           /gh/

fine      coffee     physics      laugh

fish       toffee     alphabet   enough

The  /v/ sound

To form this consonant sound, press the lower lip against the upper front teeth. The sound is voiced. Here are some words containing this sound

alive, leaving, giving, valley,veil

Sound contrast

Some students confuse /b/ with /v/; others confuse /v/ with /f/

1. /b/       2.     /v/        3 /f/

bee                veil           fee

bale              volt           fail

berry            vote         ferry

ban                vast         fault

bolt                save        first

cupboard     veil          safe

Grammar– Quantifiers

Pick the right quantifier

To answer the questions How much? and How many? certain quantifiers can be used with countable nouns (friends, cups, people), others with uncountable nouns (sugar, tea, money) and still others will all types of nouns.

Only with uncountable nouns	With all types of nouns	Only with countable nouns
a little	no, none, not any	a few
a bit of	some	a number of
	any	several
a great deal of	a lot of, lots of	a great number of
a large amount of	plenty of	a large number of

Examples

• Would you like some tea and a few cookies?
• I always put a little milk and some carrots in my soup.
• He has several apples. I don’t have any fruit at all.
• She has plenty of clothes for the winter.
• I received a large amount of feedback from my survey.

Using “Much” and”Many”

Much and many are mainly used in interrogative and negative sentences. They are also used in affirmative and negative sentences in combination with too and so.

Notice: the word many can be used alone in affirmative sentences while the word much cannot. Much is replaced in affirmative sentences with a lot of or lots of (these expressions can also replace many).

Uncountable nouns	Countable nouns
How much sugar do you have?	How many people came to the concert?
There’s not much sugar at the store.	Not many people came to the concert.
I have too much sugar at home.	There were too many people at the concert.
I don’t know what to do with so much sugar.	It’s a problem when there are so many people.
I wish there was not so much sugar here.	There were not so many people last year.
There is a lot of sugar in candy.	There are many people who want to come. = There are a lot of people who want to come.

Exercise

Underline the correct word for the following sentences

1. My fan/van has been stolen
2. The aeroplane  seemed to  be very fast/vast
3. He wanted a leaf/leave
4. They were saved/safe
5. Is he old enough to have a vote/boat