'Much' and 'a lot'
Hello everyone!
I'd like to ask a question to English speakers. Is there a rule for using 'much' and 'a lot'?
For example, there are two sentences. 1) "There is much grass in the garden." 2) "There is a lot of grass in the garden." The second one sounds more natural to me, but I'm not a native speaker.

Also, if we make a negative sentence, is it ok to say "There isn't much grass in the garden"? Or "There isn't a lot of grass in the garden"?
Are there specific rules for these?

Question

'Much' and 'a lot'
Hello everyone!
I'd like to ask a question to English speakers. Is there a rule for using 'much' and 'a lot'?
For example, there are two sentences. 1) "There is much grass in the garden." 2) "There is a lot of grass in the garden." The second one sounds more natural to me, but I'm not a native speaker.

Also, if we make a negative sentence, is it ok to say "There isn't much grass in the garden"? Or "There isn't a lot of grass in the garden"?
Are there specific rules for these?

Answer

Hi Marina,

The correct sentence would be 'there is a lot of grass'

Grass is an uncountable noun, referring to lots of stalks of grass making up a lawn. As it is uncountable, it would be 'much' and not 'many', but much is more usually used in the negative sentence.

So much 'there isn't much grass' and 'there isn't a lot of grass' are correct :)

Answer

I am not a native speaker of English either, though I have heard you usually use "much" in a negative sentence and "a lot" in an affirmative sentence. I am not 100% sure. Just for your quick information.

Answer

many -- для исчисляемых 
much -- для неисчисляемых
a lot of -- для всех, пофиг

Answers · 4

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