Quantifiers Exercises English Grammar Test

Try the exercise #1 Intermediate Try the exercise #2 Upper Intermediate 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 speakers 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:

 

Ive got a few friends (= maybe not many, but enough) Ive got a little money (= Ive 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 arent 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 How much? With Both How much? or How many? With Countable Nouns 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? Theres not much sugar in the cupboard. There werent many people at the party. They are also used with too, (not) so, and (not) as There were too many people at the party. Its a problem when there are so many people. Theres not so much work to do this week. In positive statements, we use a lot of: Ive got a lot of work this week. There were a lot of people at the concert. Next page Try the exercise #1 Intermediate Try the exercise #2 Upper Intermediate Back to Grammar Table

http://www.learn4good.com/languages/evrd_grammar/quantifier.htm QUANTIFIERS Much - Many - Few - A little Estas palavras, so chamadas "quantificadores", porque expressam,quantidades(lgico, n?). So usadas em diversas situaes com vrios significados. No se deixe impressionar pelo que a princpio pode parecer meio complicado. Como tudo o mais na vida uma questo de estudo e prtica. Definitions that help (definies que ajudam): Countable Nouns (nomes contveis):- so substantivos(coisas) que podem ser contadas em unidades. Por exemplo: pessoas, casas, carros, animais, ovos, frutas etc. enfim tudo que voc possa separar em unidades e contar. Uncountable Nouns (coisas no contveis)- aqui se encaixam todos os lquidos, as coisas abstratas(experincias, tempo, informao, emoes, etc.) No caso de lquidos, por exemplo, no se pode contar a gua, o leite, a cerveja o vinho e etc...O que se

conta so "os litros" de agua, cerveja, vinho etc... Quando dizemos "Me da duas cervejas" estamos na verdade dizendo "Me da duas garrafas de cerveja"(com perdo do erro gramatical) .estamos falando das garrafas e no do lquido em si,certo? MUCH / MANY usa-se com Uncountable nouns (coisas incontveis), Abstract Nouns (coisas abstratas), Mass Nouns (substncias consideradas genericamente).Exemplos: Dave drinks much beer.He should be more careful.(beer=liquid) He doesn't have much experience (time, information, hope, patience)(abstratos) There isn't much coffee(milk, wine, beer, bread) at home (mass nouns) Much e Many so normalmente usados em negaes e interrogaes: I don't have much money with me. Has he invited many friends for his birthday party? I don't have much time today,sorry. She doesn't have many books at home. Uma dica util: Quando a pergunta inclui um quantos usa-se how many quando a pergunta inclui um quanto usa-se how much Quando precedidos por SO, AS, TOO , much e many so usados em frases afirmativas There was so much traffic that the road got jammed.(Havia tanto transito que a estrada ficou congestionada) He has made so many mistakes that I think He's stupid(Ele cometeu tantos erros que acho que ele burro) You can have as much ice cream as you like.(Voc pode tomar todo sorvete que quiser)You can invite as many friends as you want.(Voc pode convidar tantos amigos quanto quiser)

The children made too much noise yesterday(As crianas fizeram barulho demais ontem) I missed too many classes this semester(Perdi aulas demais neste semestre) Tambem se usa Much e Many quando so parte do sujeito da frase(aquele que pratica a ao descrita): Much time will be saved if you help us .(Muito tempo sera poupado se voc nos ajudar) Many economists have warned us about the causes of unemployment(Muitos economistas nos avisaram sobre as causas do desemprego) Agora preste ateno diferena entre "little" e "A little" - "few" e "A few". Os significados para efeito de traduo so diferentes. LITTLE - para Uncountable (incontveis) no singular. FEW - para countable(contveis) no plural. He has little interest in politics.(Ele tem pouco interesse em politica) Her voice had little effect on the crying child(A voz dela teve pouco efeito sobre a criana chorona.) Few people speak a foreign language very well.(Poucas pessoas falam uma lingua estrangeira muito bem). A LITTLE e A FEW usa-se respectivamente para singular e plural com o mesmo sentido de "some" (algum) Would you like a little soup?(Voc gostaria de um pouco de sopa?) NO "uma pequena sopa" Give roses a little water everyday(D s rosas um pouco de gua todos os dias)NO "Uma pequena gua" His ideas are strange, but a few people understand him.(Suas idias so estranhas mas umas poucas pessoas o entendem) I cant play now.I have to do a few exercises before that.(No posso jogar agora.

Tenho que fazer uns poucos(alguns) exerccios antes.) Aqui esto algumas outras expresses derivadas dessas palavras,com seus significados: VERY LITTLE = pouqussimo(singular) LITTLE = pouco(singular) A LITTLE= um pouco, algum (singular) JUST A LITTLE = s um pouco VERY FEW = pouqussimos(plural) A FEW = alguns,uns poucos(plural) JUST A FEW = s uns poucos. Note: Don't worry if a few words look so complicated. You only need a little practice --------------------------------------------------Visite: www.steacher.pro.br Ha muito mais para voc