How Much / How Many

Hook

At the market: “How many tomatoes do you want?” “How much cheese?” “How much is it?” Two short questions do almost all the work when you shop, and choosing the right one depends on what you learned in the last lesson.

Notice

  • How many apples do you want? — Six, please.
  • How much water do you drink every day? — About two litres.
  • How much is this bag? — It’s £20.
  • How much are these shoes? — They’re £45.
  • There aren’t many eggs. There isn’t much milk.

Which nouns come after how many? Which come after how much?

Rule

QuestionUse withExample
How many…?plural countable nounsHow many eggs do we need?
How much…?uncountable nounsHow much sugar do you want?
How much is…? / How much are…?price (one thing / more than one)How much is the cake? How much are the apples?
  • Negative: not many + plural (not many people), not much + uncountable (not much time).
  • Answering prices: It’s £3.50 (“three pounds fifty”) · They’re $12 (“twelve dollars”).
  • Small quantities: a few apples · a little milk; big quantities: a lot of apples / milk.

Watch Out

  • ✗ How many water? → ✓ How much water? (water is uncountable)
  • ✗ How much apples? → ✓ How many apples?
  • ✗ How much cost this? → ✓ How much is this? / How much does this cost?
  • ✗ How much is these shoes? → ✓ How much are these shoes?

Practice

  1. ___ apples do you want?
  2. ___ milk is in the fridge?
  3. ___ is this jacket? (price)
  4. How much ___ these socks?
  5. There isn’t ___ bread. (much / many)
  6. There aren’t ___ chairs. (much / many)
  7. Say the price: £4.50
  8. Write a question asking the price of a T-shirt.
Show the answers
  1. How many
  2. How much
  3. How much
  4. are
  5. much
  6. many
  7. four pounds fifty
  8. How much is this T-shirt?

Your Turn

Imagine you are at a market. Write four questions: two with How many…?, one with How much…? for quantity and one asking a price. Then write the seller’s answers.

Connect

Our Grammar Quiz has A1 questions on much, many and quantities.

Try our Grammar Quiz →

Build shopping questions in the right order with our Sentence Builder.

Try our Sentence Builder →

CEFR A1 — Spoken Interaction: I can ask about quantities and prices and understand simple answers.

Azizul Hakim
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