Quantifiers: what they are and what they do

Quantifiers are words or phrases like few little plenty (of), which often modify nouns and show how many things or how much of some­thing we are talking about Some quantifiers combine with countable nouns, some with uncountable and some with both kinds [> 2.14]

1 Quantifiers combining with countable nouns answer How many? How many eggs are there in the fridge? - There are a few

2 Quantifiers combining with uncountable nouns answer How much? How much milk is there in the fridge? - There is a little

3 Quantifiers combining with uncountable or with countable answer How many⁷ or How much?

How many eggs are there in the fridge? - There are plenty How much milk is there in the fridge? - There is plenty

Quantifiers can function as determiners [> 3.1 ] or (with the exception of every and no) as pronouns [> 4.2.2], some of them can function as adverbs / don t like coffee very much [> 7.41 ]

5.2 Quantifier + noun combinations

Quantifiers combine with different types of nouns

1 Quantifier + plural countable noun not many books any number more than one (2 3, etc), both a couple of dozens hundreds of (a) few fewer the fewest a the majority of (not) many a minority of a number of several We have fewer students specializing in maths than in English

2 Quantifier + uncountable noun not much sugar a (small) amount of a bit of a drop of (liquid) a great good deal of (a) little less [but > 5.16], the least (not) much I d like a bit of bread with this cheese

3 Quantifier + plural countable noun a lot of books

or + (singular) uncountable noun a lot of sugar some (of the) any (of the) all (the) hardly any enough half of the half the a lot of lots of more most most of the no none of the the other part of the plenty of the rest of the There aren t any cars on the road at the moment There isn t any traffic on the road at the moment

4 Quantifier + singular countable noun each book

all (of) the another any (of the) each either every half (of) the most of the neither no none of the one the only the other some (of the) the whole (of the) It s each/every man for himself in this business

General introduction to quantity