- •7. Different ways of expressing future time.
- •16. What is the difference in presentation of the event by the constructions “used to do” and “would do”?
- •17. The difference between “gone (to)” and “been (to)”?
- •20. Direct and indirect speech.
- •25. Irregular plural nouns.
- •38. Comparative construction.
- •39. Substantivized adjectives.
- •40. Irregular forms of the degrees of comparison of adjectives.
- •41. Adjectives after verbs.
- •47. Word order – adverbs with a verb.
- •48. Semantic groups of pronouns.
- •49. Number and case forms of pronouns.
- •50. Forms of “other”.
- •51. Expressions of quantity.
- •56. What may prepositions indicate?
- •58. How can prepositions be classified in accordance with their structure?
- •63. “For, during and while” – grammatical difference.
- •79. Usage of articles with the names of countries, mountains, islands.
- •80. Usage of articles with the names of oceans, seas, rivers, lakes.
- •1.2.2. Voice
- •1.2.3. Aspect
- •85. Infinitive constructions. Complex Subject. Complex Object. For – Construction.
- •1. The objective with the infinitive construction
- •1) The subject
- •87. What is Gerund? How to distinguish it from the Participle 1 and the Verbal Noun? How to translate the Gerund into Russian?
- •88. What is the Participle 1? How to translate it into Russian?
- •89. What is the Participle 2? The functions of the Participle 2 in the sentence?
- •1. Attribute.
- •2. Adverbial Modifier
- •3. Predicative
- •90. Parenthesis. Dangling or Misrelated Participle.
- •91. Constructions with the Participle
- •92. Gerundial Constructions
- •93. The Infinitive. The syntactical and morphological features of the Infinitive.
- •II. The morphological features of the infinitive (The forms of the infinitive)
- •97. What verbals can be used as subject or object?
- •98. What are the verbs which can be followed by –ing or to with a difference of meaning?
51. Expressions of quantity.
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An expression of quantity (e.g., one, several, many, much) may precede a noun. Notice below: Some expressions of quantity are used only with count nouns; some only with noncount noun; some with either count or noncount nouns. | ||
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EXPRESSIONS OF QUANTITY |
USED WITH COUNT NOUNS |
USED WITH NONCOUNT NOUNS |
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one each every |
one apple each apple every apple |
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two both a couple of three, etc. a few several many a number of |
two apples both apples a couple of apples three apples a few apples several apples many apples a number of apples |
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a little much a great deal of |
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a little rice much rice a great deal of rice |
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not any/no some a lot of lots of plenty of most all |
not any/no apples some apples a lot of apples lots of apples plenty of apples most apples all apples |
not any/ no rice some rice a lot of rice lots of rice plenty of rice most rice all rice |
AFEW AND FEW, A LITTLE AND LITTLE
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A few
A little |
(a) She has been here only two weeks, but she has already made a few friends. (Positive idea: She has made some friends.)
(b) I'm very pleased. I've been able to save a little money this month. (Positive idea: I have saved some money instead of spending all of it.) |
A few and a little give a positive idea; they indicate that something exits, in (a) and (b).
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Few
Little
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(c) I feel sorry for her. She has (very) few friends. (Negative idea: She does not have many friends; she has almost no friends.)
(d) I have (very) little money. I don't even have enough money to buy food for dinner. (Negative idea: I do not have much money; I have almost no money.) |
Few and little (without a) give a negative idea; they indicate that something is absent.
Very (+ few/little) makes the negative idea stronger, the number/amount smaller.
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USING OF IN EXPRESSIONS OF QUANTITY
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MOST + NONSPECIFIC NOUN (a) Most books are interesting.
(b) INCORRECT: Most of books are interesting.
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In (a): The speaker is not referring to specific books. The speaker is not referring to “those books” or “your books” or “the books written by Mark Twain”. The noun “books” is nonspecific.
In(b): The word of is not added to an expression of quantity (e.g., most) if the noun it modifies is nonspecific. |
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MOST +OF + SPECIFIC NOUN (c) Most of those books are mine. (d) Most of my books are in English. (e) Most of the books on that table are mine.
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A noun is specific when it is precede by:
When a noun is specific, of is used with an expression of quantity.* |
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EXPRESSIONS OF QUANTITY FOLLOWED BY OF + A SPECific NOUn all, most, some/any + of + specific plural count noun or noncount noun, as in (f) many, (a) few, several, both, two, one + of + specific plural count noun, as in (g) much, (a) little + of + specific noncount noun, as in (h) | |
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(f) count: Most of those chairs are uncomfortable. noncount: Most of that furniture is uncomfortable. (g) count: Many of those chairs are uncomfortable. (h) noncount: Much of that furniture is uncomfortable. | |
*NOTE: of is always a part of the following expressions of quantity, whether the noun is nonspecific or specific: a lot of, lots of, a couple of, plenty of, a number of, a peat deal of.
NONSPECIFIC: I've read a lot of books. SPECIFIC: I've read a lot of those books.