WE use much and little with uncountable nouns: much time, much luck, little energy, little money. We use many and few with plural nouns: many friends, many people, few cars and few countries.
A lot (of), lots (of) and plenty (of). We use a lot of /lots of/plenty of with uncountable and plural nouns: a lot of luck, lots of time, plenty of money, a lot of people, lots of books, plenty of ideas. Plenty = more than enough: Have some more to eat. “No, thank you. I’ve had plenty; – There’s no need to hurry. We’ve got plenty of time.
We use much and many mainly in negative sentences and questions:-We didn’t spend much money.–Have you got many friends? In positive sentences, it is usually better to use “a lot of”. Much is especially unusual in positive sentences,- We spent a lot of money. (not spent much money). –There has been a lot of rain recently. (not much rain).
But we use “too much” and “so much” in positive sentences. He doesn’t drink this tea as he feels there’s too much sugar in it. Little/a little, few/a few. Little and few (without a) are negative ideas. Hurry up! We’ve got little time. (= not much, not enough time). He’s not popular. He has few friends. (=not many, not enough friends). We also use very little and very few–We’ve got very little time.–He has very few friends.
A little and “a few” are more positive ideas. A little/a few = some, a small amount or a small number. But “only a little” and “only a few” have a negative meaning. Hurry up! We’ve only got a little time. The village was very small. There were only a few houses.
All, every and whole — All, everyone, everybody and everything. We do not normally use all to mean everyone/everybody: Everybody enjoyed the party. (not “All enjoyed . . .”) Robin knows everyone in her street. (not “. . . all in her street”). Sometimes you can use “all” to mean everything, but it is usually better to say everything.
He thinks he knows everything. (not “knows all”). It was an awful holiday. Everything went wrong. (not “all went wrong”) But you can use all in the expression “all about”. They told us all about their holiday. We use all to mean the only thing(s). All I’ve eaten today is a fruit. (= the only thing I’ve eaten).
We use a singular verb after every/everyone/everybody/everything:: Every seat in the hall was taken. Everybody looks tired today. Everything he said was true. But we often use they/them/their after everyone/everybody: Has everyone got their books? (= his or her book? Everybody said they would come. (=he or she would come).
All and whole: We use whole mainly with singular nouns: Have you read the whole book? (= all the book, not just a part of it) He was very quiet. He did not say a word the whole morning. He has spent his whole life in Canada. We say the/my/her etc. before whole. Compare the whole book/all the book; her whole life/all her life. You can also say “a whole . . .”: Jacob ate a whole cake yesterday. (a complete cake). We do not normally use whole with uncountable nouns: all the money (not the whole money).
Every/all/whole with time words: We use “every” to say how often something happens. So, we say every day/every week/ every Monday/ every ten minutes/ every two weeks. We go out every Friday night. The buses run every fifteen minutes. Debra goes to see her mother every three weeks. All day/the whole day =the complete day. We spent all day/the whole day on the beach. Note that we say all day/all week (not all the day/all the week).
Adjectives and adverbs (quick and quickly): Study these examples; Our holiday was too short — the time went too quickly. The driver of the bus was seriously injured in the accident. Quickly and seriously are adverbs. Many adverbs are made from an adjective + ly: adjective — quick, serious, careful, quiet, heavy, bad. Adverb — quickly, seriously, carefully, quietly, heavily and badly.
Not all words ending in –ly are adverbs. Some adjectives end in –ly too. For example: friendly, lively, elderly, lonely, silly and lovely. Adjective or adverb? An adjective tells us more about a noun. We use adjectives before nouns and after a few verbs (especially be).
Ben is a careful driver. Be quiet, please! We did not go out because of the heavy rain. She was disappointed that her results were so bad. An adverb tells us more about a verb. An adverb tells us in what way someone does something or in what way something happens. –Jon drove carefully along a narrow road. (not careful).
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