The Statue of Liberty (a woman dressed in a Roman toga carrying a torch)

Activities: “How to use ‘much’ and ‘many’ in English?”

By: revel arroway
Associated Articles

These activities are part of our English Grammar series. The skills we are practicing here are covered in our article:

Activity 1: ‘How much’ and ‘how many’

For each picture, write one question using how much or how many. Then write an answer to the question.

For example:

books

A drawing of a white man in an orange shirt and jeans gesturing to three very thick books sitting on a table right in front of him.

Question: How many books are on the table?
Answer: There are three books on the table.

  • cement

    A drawing of a large number of bags of cement, stacked on top of each other.

    Question:
    Answer:

    e.g. How much cement is in the pile? → There is a lot of cement in the pile.
    How many bags of cement are in the picture? → There are many bags of cement in the picture.

  • students

    A drawing of a group of seven smiling children lined up in front of a yellow school bus. Each child has a necklace with a museum pass on it. From left to right: a white girl with long brown hair, a green sweater and a backpack; a white boy with short, dark hair, a spotted blue collared shirt and a backpack; a black boy with a blue t-shirt, white jacket, and a backpack; a mixed-race girl with curly brown hair, a blue collared shirt over a t-shirt, and a backpack; a white girl with long blonde hair, a blue collared shirt, and no backpack; An asian boy in a lime green sweater and collared shirt with a backpack; a black boy with light hair, a light blue collared shirt, a dark blue t-shirt, and a backpack.

    Question:
    Answer:

    e.g. How many students are getting on the bus? → Seven students are getting on the bus.

  • water

    A drawing shows the bottom shelf of the open door of a small fridge, containing four bottles of water.

    Question:
    Answer:

    e.g. How much water is in the fridge? → There is a little water in the fridge.
    How many bottles of water are there in the fridge? → There are four bottles.

  • flour

    A drawing of two bags full of flour. The one on the left says "100% white flour" and the other says "whole-wheat flour."

    Question:
    Answer:

    e.g. How much flour do you have? → I have plenty of flour.
    How many sacks of flour are in the picture? → There are two sacks of flour in the picture.

  • boys

    Two identical boys stand back-to-back. One wears blue, the other green. They are not very tall.

    Question:
    Answer:

    e.g. How many boys are there? → There are two boys.

  • cake

    A drawing of a slice of a three-tier chocolate cake.

    Question:
    Answer:

    e.g. How much cake is in the picture? → There is just one slice of cake.
    How many slices of cake did you get? → I got one slice of cake.

  • hours

    A drawing of a clock face. The hours between 8 and 12 are shaded green.

    Question:
    Answer:

    e.g. How many hours did it take? → It took four hours.

  • glasses

    Two glasses with nothing in them.

    Question:
    Answer:

    e.g. How many empty glasses are there? → There are two empty glasses.

  • happy dogs

    A drawing of a light-colored dog with floppy ears and a big smile.
    A drawing of a snarling chihuahua.

    Question:
    Answer:

    e.g. How many happy dogs are there? → There is only one happy dog.

  • time

    A drawing of a clock face. The hours between 8 and 12 are shaded green.

    Question:
    Answer:

    e.g. How much time did that take? → It took four hours.

  • ingredients

    A drawing of a worktop from above. We can see someone cracking an egg into a mixing bowl. Also on the counter: a measuring cup full of milk, a rag, some egg shells, a whisk, a cutting board, a sieve, and another mixing bowl.

    Question:
    Answer:

    e.g. How many ingredients are in the picture? → There are two ingredients in the picture, eggs and milk.

  • iced tea

    Two glasses filled with brown soda.

    Question:
    Answer:

    e.g. How much tea is in each glass? → Each glass is full of tea!

  • fat cats

    A tall thin hairless cat.
    A gray cat that weighs a lot.

    Question:
    Answer:

    e.g. How many fat cats are in the picture? → There is one fat cat in the picture.

  • bright ideas

    A drawing of a smiling white woman with brown hair and a blue turtleneck. Above her head are three glowing lightbulbs.

    Question:
    Answer:

    e.g. How many bright ideas does Patty have? → Patty has three bright ideas!

Activity 2: Fix the sentences

Every sentence below has at least one error. Change each sentence to make it correct!

  • There is much milk in the fridge! →

    Do not use much + noun in a positive sentence.

  • I couldn’t give my sister many advices. →

    Advice is a mass noun so it follows much instead.

  • Much water wasn’t in the lake. →

    Do not use much before the negative element.

  • I really like Ritz crackers. I want to eat too many of them with my lunch! →

    Too many means more than you want, so you can’t want too many of something. You can fix the sentence by cutting out the word too, but it will sound more natural to say a lot instead of many, because many sounds formal in a positive sentence.

  • I feel sick! I ate much cake! →

    You can use too much in a positive sentence, and it makes sense in this context.

  • We don’t talk that many anymore. →

    You can use much, but not many!

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