Ways to express Large Amounts in English Basic English Grammar

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hi everybody my name is Alisha in this

lesson I’m going to talk about how to

describe large amounts in English let’s

get started okay for this lesson

there are a couple of points that I want

to remind everyone about first is the

difference between countable and

uncountable nouns in this lesson most of

the expressions I’m going to talk about

can be used for either countable or

uncountable nouns but some of the

expressions will need to be careful

about so I’ve marked those with a star

I’ll come to these near the end of the

lesson but if you want to know more

about countable and uncountable nouns

please take a look at the videos we have

on the English class 101 Channel okay

with that in mind let’s get started

first I want to talk about these very

very commonly used expressions a lot of

and lots of a lot of and lots of they

have the same meaning they communicate

the same idea you can choose whichever

one you prefer we can use a lot of and

lots of with countable and uncountable

nouns

remember countable nouns take an S to

make the plural form uncountable nouns

are not used in this way to create the

plural form for example uncountable

nouns are words like money

air time beer wine we can’t count these

individually we use counter words for

those so we can use a lot of and lots of

with both countable and uncountable

nouns

for example she won a lot of money in

Las Vegas money is an uncountable noun

I’ve used it with a lot of here you can

use this with an or rather with a

captive own noun 2 you have lots of

friends you have lots of friends so

reminder when you are using a countable

noun you need to use the plural form of

the noun in this case friends you have

lots of friends don’t forget that s I

could swap these if I wanted to

she won lots of money in Las Vegas is

fine or you have a lot of friends also

fine these mean exactly the same thing

you can choose which you prefer there’s

no difference in nuance no difference in

meaning just whichever you prefer they

mean the same thing let’s look at then

the next pair a ton of and tons of again

just like a lot of and lots of these

mean the same thing the difference

between these is the level so if we

imagine on a scale a lot of is maybe

here tons up is here it’s a lot more

it’s a lot more so tons of or a ton of

is a lot more than lots of or a lot of

so on a scale tons of is here a lot of

or a lotta is down here so this is for

when we want to express a much higher

amount of something so if you need a

hint you can use ton ton is a

measurement a measurement a very large

measurement so remember that ton refers

to very very big heavy things some

examples we have a ton of work to do we

have a ton of work to do work is an

uncountable noun know ESTs we have a ton

of work to do or they have tons of pets

they have tons of pets pets is a

countable noun we need to use the plural

form pets here again I could swap these

if I wanted to we have tons of work to

do is okay and they have a ton of pets

is also okay so again this pair and this

pair follow the same rule you can choose

whichever one you prefer okay let’s

continue on to this next group there are

actually three here because I feel that

these expressions are all about this

same level so we have a lot of a ton of

or tons of and then a bunch of or

bunches of or plenty of for some people

it might come this one might come

between tons of and a lot of for some

people it might be a little bit further

down its

you have to feel for yourself what this

means I like to imagine this expression

bunches of or a bunch of like a bunch of

flowers we use the expression a bunch of

flowers to talk about a bouquet of

flowers like that group of flowers we

give as a present so we can imagine

there are many there are lots of flowers

inside a bunch so in my mind I imagine

like a bunch of kind of that’s sort of

the image I have in terms of quantity

like how many flowers are in a bunch of

flowers that might be helpful for you

plenty of sounds like a lot of something

and it’s like there’s a relaxed feeling

about that so let’s look at some example

sentences that use these first bunches

of money were stolen from the store

bunches of money were stolen from the

store so money is my uncountable noun

I’ve used bunches here to compare this

with a countable noun a bunch of my

co-workers went out for a drink a bunch

of my co-workers went out for a drink so

this means a lot of people or maybe a

group of people that had many people in

it went out for a drink so the idea here

is that there’s some kind of group I

feel that’s kind of the image of a bunch

so plenty also has this this feeling of

a lot of something yes but there’s also

kind of this relaxed casual feel we tend

to use bunch and bunches when there’s a

little bit of a casual feel to you will

often hear plenty of in this expression

we have plenty of time we have plenty of

time

you might hear lots of time to you we

have lots of time plenty of time sounds

like don’t worry it’s nothing to worry

about we have a lot of time to do this

thing we need to do there’s plenty of

time that’s often the voice that’s used

so it has this idea behind it of like

relaxation or being able to do something

at an easy pace we have plenty of time

so we do not have this form or plenty of

but again we can use this with countable

or uncountable

• bull nouns okay so let’s move along

then to the next part as I said this

next part will include some differences

some important differences between

countable and uncountable nouns the

difference is in these words here

actually first I have this despair a

large amount of and a large number of

something so when should we use these

this word amount we use this when we’re

talking about uncountable nouns a large

amount of uncountable noun we use number

for countable nouns a large number of

countable nouns so this is the

difference between these two let’s take

a look at some examples first a large

amount of the population got sick a

large amount of the population got sick

so here we’re talking about a population

we’re not talking about like one person

we’re talking about the whole population

of a city so an entire group of people

so we use amount to do that a large

amount of the population got sick we can

compare this to a large number of

students improved a large number of

students improved so here I’ve used

number because students is my countable

noun in the plural form a large number

of students improved so please keep this

difference in mind we’ll see the same

thing down here a huge amount of or a

huge number of follows this same pattern

the difference here is in this word huge

vs. large so large means big so we don’t

say big really in this case we use large

and it tends to sound a little more

formal these sound a bit more formal

than these do these expressions are

fairly casual here however huge means

very very very very big so for like an

animal it would be an elephant is very

big that’s a huge animal may be a large

animal would be a horse for example a

huge animal is an elephant so that’s the

difference in size here so when you’re

thinking

about concepts you can kind of use that

as like the guideline for your

vocabulary decision-making so we follow

the same uncountable countable rule here

a huge amount of count sorry uncountable

nouns and a huge number of countable

nouns so there was a huge amount of

interest in our project so interest is

uncountable

we don’t say one interest to interest

there was a huge amount of interest

uncountable noun in our project on the

other hand a huge number of illnesses

are treatable illnesses so illness means

a sickness a type of disease a huge

number of illnesses are treatable

so here the plural form illnesses shows

it’s the plural of the the countable

noun illness illness a huge number of

illnesses are treatable able to be

treated or cured finally then is this

word several several this is special

because several is used only for

countable nouns only for countable nouns

we do not use several with uncountable

nouns so several is more than just two

or three or four I think a good hint is

here several sounds like seven but it

doesn’t mean seven it means like a good

number of ideas in this case or a good

number of something so it’s not a small

amount but it’s not quite a lot either

it’s kind of near the middle the bottom

middle of a scale so in this case she

has several ideas again countable noun

so we need to use the plural form here

she has several ideas so this is only

for countable nouns please be careful

with that okay so this is an

introduction to some common expressions

we use to talk about large amounts so I

hope that this was helpful for you again

if you want to know more about countable

and uncountable nouns please search the

English class 101 channel for some

information for some videos about those

topics of course if you have any

questions or comments or

if you want to practice making sentences

with any of these points please feel

free to do so in the comment section of

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thanks very much for watching this

lesson and I will see you again soon bye

bye

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