many y much (adjetivos y pronombres)

1. He didn’t make many mistakes. We haven’t much coffee. more mistakes, most men. more coffee, most damage. He gets a lot of letters but she doesn’t get many. You have a lot of free time but I haven’t much.

[«many» (adjetivo) se usa con nombres contables; «much» (adjetivo), con nombres incontables. Ambos tienen las mismas formas de comparativo y superlativo: «more» y «most.» Las 4 formas («many,» «much,» «more» y «most») pueden utilizarse también como pronombres. El uso de «more» y «most,» y el de «many» y «much» en oraciones negativas, no está sometido a restricciones. Pero «many» y «much» con verbos afirmativos o interrogativos sí presentan restricciones de uso.]

2. CON VERBO AFIRMATIVO. [‘ ‘many’-adjetivo’, modificado]: I made a good many friends there; I made a great many friends. He had so many jobs that he was always busy; he had as many jobs as he could find; he had too many jobs. [‘ ‘much’- adjetivo/pronombre’, modificado]: He drank so much gin that he was always drunk; She read so much that she didn’t do anything else; He drank as much gin as he could; she read as much as she could; He drank too much gin; she read too much.[ ‘many-objeto’ (sin modificación) es sustituido «a lot of»/»lots of» (adjetivos) o «a lot»/»lots» (pronombres)]: I saw a lot of/lots of seabirds, I expect you saw a lot/lots too. [» ‘much-objeto’ » (sin modificación) es sustituido por «a great deal of»/»a good deal of» (= «a large amount of») /»a lot of»/»lots of» en lugar de]: He spends a great deal of money on his house; he spends a good deal of money on his house; he spends a lot of money on his house; he spends lots of money on his house. He spends a great deal; he spends a good deal.[‘many-sujeto’ («many»/»a lot of»)]: Many visitors came; a lot of visitors came. [‘much-sujeto’]: A great deal of cocaine appeared in the boat; a good deal of cocaine appeared in the boat. A lot of cocaine appeared in the boat. Lots of cocaine appeared in the boat. Much will depend on what the minister says. // He hasn’t won many races: you’ve won a great many races; you’ve won a lot/lots of races. He didn’t eat much fruit: She ate a great deal of fruit; she ate a good deal of fruit; she ate a lot of fruit; she ate lots of fruit.

[Con VERBO AFIRMATIVO se puede usar «many» si se lo modifica mediante «a good»/»a great,» y tanto «many» como «much» si aparecen modificados por «so,» «as,» o «too.» De no darse esta modificación, en la función objeto «many» es reemplazado por «a lot of»/»lots of» (adjetivos) o «a lot»/lots» (pronombres), y «much» por «a great deal of»/»a good deal of»/»a lot of»/»lots of»; en funcion sujeto cabe emplear «many» o sustituirlo por «a lot of,» pero «much» se sustituye por alguno de los equivalentes que sirven para reemplazarlo como objeto: «a great deal of»/»a good deal of»/»a lot of»/»lots of.» «much» solo se conserva como sujeto en Inglés formal: «Much will depend on what the minister says.»]

3. How many (times)? How much (money)? Did you take many photos? Did you take a lot of photos? (I expect you did). Did you have much snow last year? Did you have «a great deal of»/»a good deal of»/» a lot of»/»lots of» snow last year?

[Con VERBO INTERROGATIVO en preguntas con «how» es posible usar «many» y «much». En preguntas no introducidas por «how» puede usarse «many,» pero es mejor «a lot of» si se espera respuesta afirmativa; y también puede usarse «much,» pero son más usuales «a lot of» y sus otras alternativas («a great deal of,» «a good deal of,» «lots of»)]