Quantifiers
- 1. Quantifiers are words that are used to state quantity or amount of something without stating the actually number.Quantifiers answer the questions "How many?" and "How much?"Quantifiers can be used with plural countable nouns and uncountable nouns.Quantifiers must agree with the noun. There are 3 main types of quantifiers. Quantifiers that are used with countable nouns, quantifiers that are used with uncountable nouns. and the 3rd type are quantifiers that are used with either countable nouns or uncountable nouns.QUANTIFIERS
- 2. QUANTIFIERS It might be better to begin this section on quantifiers by looking at a few of them and to see how they operate with nouns. In the list that follows a Yes indicates the type of noun(s) that the quantifier generally can be used with (there are, as so often with English, obscure exceptions). As before, U refers to uncountable nouns and C refers to countable nouns.
- 3. Quantifiers are used at the beginning of noun phrases:Quantifiers are used at the beginning of noun phrases:before a noun on its own: fewer answers before an adjective and noun: some useful phrases before an adverb, adjective and noun: every really pleasant experienceNormally two quantifiers cannot be used together before the same noun. However, the quantifiers all and both are found immediately before the or a possessive pronoun: all my relatives, both the ministers. You will also see the following combinations of quantifiers: a little less noise a few more questions every few minutes
- 4. Many, much, a lot ofThese are all used to talk about a large quantity of something; many is used only with C nouns, much with U nouns and a lot of can be used with both. Only many and much can be preceded by the words how, to form questions (how many / how much ...?). The word too can be used to express a negative idea (too hot, too cold) and so, to show the speaker's attitude to the quantity (so many that ... /so much he couldn't ...). Many and much tend to be rather formal in use and are therefore often found in legal documents, academic papers and so on; in speech we often use phrases like a lot of, loads of, tons of, hundreds of.
- 5. Few, littleAgain, the meaning of these two words is similar since they both refer to small quantities, except that few is found with C nouns and little with U nouns. If they are used without the indefinite article, a, they have the sense of not enough and are negative in feeling (few events, little interest) but these are quite formal and we would normally prefer not many events and not much interest. When few and little are used witha they simply mean a small quantity with no extra negative overtones: a few events (i.e. three or four) and a little interest (i.e. some interest, but not a lot).