Expressing quantity
How many? How much? ask questions about quantity. We are expressing quantity when we say one of those, many people, a lot of my time, most days, etc. You ask this when you want to know a number or an amount of something. When asking about something that can be counted (countable noun), we say “How many __________?”
How many people are in this train station?
There are many people in the train station. There are hundreds of people there. Half of the people at the train station are walking somewhere. The other half are standing in line, standing in groups, or standing and waiting for something. Most of the people are going to travel somewhere. Some of them are probably just visiting the train station. There are many restaurants and stores, where people can eat and go shopping.
One woman is squatting (she is on the right side of the picture, on the main floor of the train station). None of the people in this picture are sitting. Everyone but the one woman is on their feet.
To answer the question “How many people are waking?”, use: everyone is, most people are, many people are, some people are, a few people are, nobody is. We must use “is” for singular and “are” for plural. Look at this worksheet about “How many people…”
When we ask about an uncountable noun, we say “How much __________?”
How much coffee is in the cup?
There is a lot of coffee is in the cup. It’s almost full. The coffee is delicious. It smells great. There is steam rising from the coffee. So, it must be hot.
Liquids are uncountable nouns, so we talk about amount with these words: most, a lot, some, a little, none.
How much water do you see?
There is a lot of water flowing over the rocks. Thousands of gallons of water are rushing down this stream. An enormous amount of water travels eastward on the Ausable River.
Quiz: How Many?
This page explains how to use the questions “How Much?” and “How Many?”. It also teaches English language learners how to use expressions of quantity, like all, most, many, some, a few, one, and none.