quantifiers

Usage of quantifiers:

A few and few, a little and little

Graded Quantifiers

Some or Any?

Something, Anything, Someone, Anyone etc.

Enough

A few and few, a little and little

These expressions show the speaker’s attitude towards the quantity he/she is referring to.

A few (for countable nouns) and a little (for uncountable nouns) describe the quantity in a positive way:
• “I’ve got a few friends” (= maybe not many, but enough)
• “I’ve got a little money” (= I’ve got enough to live on)

Few and little describe the quantity in a negative way:
• Few people visited him in hospital (= he had almost no visitors)
• He had little money (= almost no money)
Graded Quantifiers

They are like comparatives and hold a relative position on a scale of increase or decrease.

INCREASE (0% to 100%)

With plural countable nouns:
many more most

With uncountable nouns:
much more most

DECREASE (100% to 0%)

With plural countable nouns:
few fewer fewest

With uncountable nouns:
little less least

Examples:

• There are many people in Poland, more in India, but the most people live in China.

• Much time and money is spent on education, more on health services but the most is spent on national defense.

• Few rivers in Europe aren’t polluted.

• Fewer people die young now than in the nineteenth century.

• The country with the fewest people per square kilometre must be Australia.

• Scientists have little hope of finding a complete cure for cancer before 2010.

• She had less time to study than I did but had better results.

• Give that dog the least opportunity and it will bite you.

Quantifiers with countable and uncountable nouns

Some adjectives and adjectival phrases can only go with uncountable nouns (salt, rice, money, advice), and some can only go with countable nouns (friends, bags, people). The words in the middle column can be used with both countable and uncountable nouns.

With Uncountable Nouns With Both With Countable Nouns
How much? How much? or How many? How many?
a little no/none a few
a bit (of) not any a number (of)
some (any) several
a great deal of a lot of a large number of
a large amount of plenty of a great number of
a large quantity of lots of a majority of

Note: much and many are used in negative and question forms.

Example:

• How much money have you got?

• How many cigarettes have you smoked?

• There’s not much sugar in the cupboard.

• There weren’t many people at the party.

They are also used with too, (not) so, and (not) as

There were too many people at the party.
It’s a problem when there are so many people.
There’s not so much work to do this week.

In positive statements, we use a lot of:

• I’ve got a lot of work this week.

• There were a lot of people at the concert
Some Notes on Quantifiers
Like articles, quantifiers are words that precede and modify nouns. They tell us how many or how much. Selecting the correct quantifier depends on your understanding the distinction between Count and Non-Count Nouns. For our purposes, we will choose the count noun trees and the non-count noun dancing:
The following quantifiers will work with count nouns:
many trees
a few trees
few trees
several trees
a couple of trees
none of the trees

The following quantifiers will work with non-count nouns:
not much dancing
a little dancing
little dancing
a bit of dancing
a good deal of dancing
a great deal of dancing
no dancing

The following quantifiers will work with both count and non-count nouns:
all of the trees/dancing
some trees/dancing
most of the trees/dancing
enough trees/dancing
a lot of trees/dancing
lots of trees/dancing
plenty of trees/dancing
a lack of trees/dancing
In formal academic writing, it is usually better to use many and much rather than phrases such as a lot of, lots of and plenty of.
There is an important difference between “a little” and “little” (used with non-count words) and between “a few” and “few” (used with count words). If I say that Tashonda has a little experience in management that means that although Tashonda is no great expert she does have some experience and that experience might well be enough for our purposes. If I say that Tashonda has little experience in management that means that she doesn’t have enough experience. If I say that Charlie owns a few books on Latin American literature that means that he has some some books — not a lot of books, but probably enough for our purposes. If I say that Charlie owns few books on Latin American literature, that means he doesn’t have enough for our purposes and we’d better go to the library.
Unless it is combined with of, the quantifier “much” is reserved for questions and negative statements:
• Much of the snow has already melted.
• How much snow fell yesterday?
• Not much.
Note that the quantifier “most of the” must include the definite article the when it modifies a specific noun, whether it’s a count or a non-count noun: “most of the instructors at this college have a doctorate”; “most of the water has evaporated.” With a general plural noun, however (when you are not referring to a specific entity), the “of the” is dropped:
• Most colleges have their own admissions policy.
• Most students apply to several colleges.
Authority for this last paragraph: The Scott, Foresman Handbook for Writers by Maxine Hairston and John J. Ruszkiewicz. 4th ed. HarperCollins: New York. 1996. Examples our own.
An indefinite article is sometimes used in conjunction with the quantifier many, thus joining a plural quantifier with a singular noun (which then takes a singular verb):
• Many a young man has fallen in love with her golden hair.
• Many an apple has fallen by October.
This construction lends itself to a somewhat literary effect (some would say a stuffy or archaic effect) and is best used sparingly, if at all.

Here is the TestMagic list of quantifiers:

0%, 10%, 50%, 100%, etc.
½, ¼, etc.
1, 2, 3, 4, etc.
one, two, three, four, etc.
one half, one third, one fourth, one quarter, one fifth, etc.
a bit
a couple
a few
a good deal
a good many
a great deal
a great many
a little
a little bit
a majority
a minority
a number
a quantity
all
an amount
another
any
any
both
certain
each
either
enough
enough
few
fewer
heaps
less
less
little
little
loads
lots
many
masses
more
more
most
much
much
neither
none
numbers
part
plenty
quantities
several
some
TestMagic list
the majority
the remainder
the rest
the whole
tons
various