How do you talk about exact numbers? How can you talk about numbers in detail? What if you know how many there are of something? Let's talk about quantity in English and how to use it! Quantity is used to explain how much/many there are of something, whether in general or very specific and if there is plenty, not enough and to compare them.
Quantity phrases
• There are some books, the amount is not clear.
• There are a few books when there is a small amount.
• There are lots of buildings when there are plenty and sometimes you can't count how many.
"Enough/not enough" and "too many" with countable nouns.
Used to talk about the quantity of something that can be counted easily.
• We have some students. An unclear amount.
• We have two students, that is not enough. We need more for it to work.
• We have four students, that is enough. The right amount that we need.
• We have five students, that is too many. More than we need/can handle.
"Enough/ not enough" and "too many" with uncountable nouns.
• We need ten bags of sand.
• There is not enough sand.
• We have enough sand.
• Eleven bags is too much.
"A lot of " and "lots of" used with uncountable and plural countable nouns to show that there is a large amount (quantity) of them.
• A lot of...
• Lots of people learn English.
• ... food in the fridge.
• ...money in the bank.
• ...places to travel to.
"Little" for small quantity, which uncountable nouns to say that there is not much of something. Emphasises how small/little there is of something.
• "Little"= not much. I have a little chair.
• Can also be used as a pronoun to mean "not much": little can be done about the car.
"A little" is used with uncountable nouns to mean "some", showing how few there are of something, regardless of the actual amount.
• I have a little sugar in the tea.
• "a little bit", can be a title: I will have a little bit of chocolate with the tea.
"Few " for small numbers, it is used with countable nouns to say that there is not much of it. Showing how small the amount is.
• Few= not many, there are a few people at the part.
"A few" can be used with a plural countable to show that there is "some", regardless of the actual amount.
• There are a few cakes at the party, but few people to eat it.
"Quite a few" and "quite a bit (of)" for large quantities, they generally mean "a lot" or "many".
• Quite a few = many. The house has many things inside it.
• Quite a bit of= a lot of. There is quite a bit of petrol left in the car.
• ... quite a few people don't eat meat.
• ... there is quite a bit of ketchup on the pizza.
"More", to have more of something when there is not enough or you want additional parts/pieces.
• I'm buying more cakes.
• I' need more cars.
• I like learning more about China.
• I am going to learn more Spanish.
• There are more and more videos to come.
"Fewer" and "less", often confused; showing how little there is of something. "Fewer" belongs with plural countable nouns and "less" with countable nouns.
• Fewer people haven't travelled abroad in England.
• Travelling by bus costs less than by train.
• There are fewer people living in the countryside than before.
• This costs less money than I thought.
A common mistake, "fewer" is only with plural countable nouns and "less" is with uncountable nouns"
• I have fewer flowers than you = RIGHT.
• I have fewer flowers than you = WRONG.
• I have fewer sand than is needed = WRONG.
• I have less sand that is needed= RIGHT.
"More than", "less than" and "fewer than":
"more than", is used when talking about amounts of both countable and uncountable.
• Dogs eat more than 3kg of food a day.
"Fewer than" is used for groups of people or things
• There are fewer than 150 people at the part.
"Less than" is for talking about amounts of things: money, time, distance, etc.
• It costs less than £10 a day to maintain the house.
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