1-31. Словосочетания, заменяющие уточнители

 
В разговорной речи much и many, как правило, употребляются только в вопросительных и отрицательных предложениях. В утвердительных предложениях они звучат очень формально (особенно much) и вместо них употребляются другие, равнозначные по смыслу, слова и обороты:

He's got [lots of men friends], but he doesn't know [many women]. (More natural than ‘He's got many men friends...’)
Did you buy any clothes? .- Yes, lots. (не ‘Yes, many’)
How much money have you got? - I've got plenty. (не ‘I've got much’.)

1. A lot of и lots of

Эти выражения употребляются в основном в разговорной речи и могут употребляться с неисчисляемыми существительными и множественным числом исчисляемых (глагол согласуется в числе с существительным, а не с a lot of/lots of):

[A lot of time] is needed to learn a language.
[Lots of patience] is needed, too. (не ‘Lots of patience are needed, too’.)
[A lot of my friends] want to emigrate. (не ‘A lot of my friends wants... ’)
[Lots of us] think it's time for an election.

There's not [a lot of meat left]. (не ‘There's not a lot meat left’.)

2. Plenty of означает «достаточно» или «больше, чем достаточно»:

Don't rush. There's [plenty of time].
[Plenty of shops] take cheques.
There's no need to worry. We've got [plenty of money].
Have some more coffee. - No, thank you. I've had [plenty].

We took [lots of food and drink] on our walk through the hills/ ...plenty of...
Jim doesn't look well. He's lost [a lot of weight] (не 'plenty of')
[Plenty of shops] open on Sunday mornings. (не ‘Plenty shops’)

В более формальном стиле употребляются

1. Much и many:

We have [much (work) to do]/[many obstacles to overcome] before we can claim that real progress has been achieved.
[Much] has been written about unemployment.
In the opinion of [many economists], ...
[Much debate] has been heard about Thornton's new book.
There could be [many explanations] for this.
[Much of her fiction] describes women in unhappy marriages.

2. A great/good deal of, a large/considerable/substantial amount of и a large/considerable/great/substantial number of

Эти выражения звучат несколько более формально, чем a lot of и lots of:

A great/good deal of и a large amount of употребляются с неисчисляемыми существительными:

Mr. Lucas has spent [a great deal of time] in the Far East.
[A good deal of the exhibition] was devoted to her recent work.
I've thrown out [a large amount of old clothing].
[A large amount of the food] was inedible/ [Much of...]

A large number of употребляется с существительными во множественном числе:

[A large number of problems] still have to be solved. (более естественно, чем ‘A large amount of problems ...’ / ‘A great deal of problems ...’ )
The book contains [a large number of pictures], many in colour/ ...many...

3. Оборот many a с существительным в единственном числе:

The manager must have spent [many a sleepless night] worrying about his team selection.
[Many a pupil] at the school will be pleased that Latin is no longer compulsory.

4. Обороты a good/great many:

She has [a good/great many friends] in New Zealand.

5. Обороты far too many/ far too much (со значением «слишком много»)

[Far too many students] failed the end-of-year math exam.
[Far too much time] is wasted filling in forms.

Выражения с of8 обычно не употребляются перед такими словами как pounds или miles:

It cost several pounds. (не ‘It cost a lot of pounds’.)
They lived many miles from the town. (не ‘They lived plenty of miles from the town’.)

■ Обычно many (а не a lot of/lots) употребляются со словами, обозначающими время (days, minutes, months, weeks, years) и с числами + of (например: thousands of voters, millions of pounds):

We used to spend [many hours] driving to Melbourne and back.
He was the founder of a company now worth [many millions of pounds].

■ Выражения с of могут употребляться как местоимения, если смысл ясен:

How much did it cost? – [A lot]. (= A lot of money.)
We should be all right for cheese - I've bought [plenty].
He does not often speak, but when he does he says [a great deal].

■ Выражения so much/many, as much/many и too much/many звучат вполне естественно в разговорной речи в утвердительных предложениях:

There was [so much traffic] that it took me an hour to get home.
I play [as much tennis] as I can.
You make [too many mistakes].
She won't drink this coffee. There's [too much sugar] in it.
There was [so much sugar] in the coffee that she could't drink it.