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hi everybody my name is Alisha in this
lesson I'm going to talk about how to
describe large amounts in English let's
get started okay for this lesson
there are a couple of points that I want
to remind everyone about first is the
difference between countable and
uncountable nouns in this lesson most of
the expressions I'm going to talk about
can be used for either countable or
uncountable nouns but some of the
expressions will need to be careful
about so I've marked those with a star
I'll come to these near the end of the
lesson but if you want to know more
about countable and uncountable nouns
please take a look at the videos we have
on the English class 101 Channel okay
with that in mind let's get started
first I want to talk about these very
very commonly used expressions a lot of
and lots of a lot of and lots of they
have the same meaning they communicate
the same idea you can choose whichever
one you prefer we can use a lot of and
lots of with countable and uncountable
nouns
remember countable nouns take an S to
make the plural form uncountable nouns
are not used in this way to create the
plural form for example uncountable
nouns are words like money
air time beer wine we can't count these
individually we use counter words for
those so we can use a lot of and lots of
with both countable and uncountable
nouns
for example she won a lot of money in
Las Vegas money is an uncountable noun
I've used it with a lot of here you can
use this with an or rather with a
captive own noun 2 you have lots of
friends you have lots of friends so
reminder when you are using a countable
noun you need to use the plural form of
the noun in this case friends you have
lots of friends don't forget that s I
could swap these if I wanted to
she won lots of money in Las Vegas is
fine or you have a lot of friends also
fine these mean exactly the same thing
you can choose which you prefer there's
no difference in nuance no difference in
meaning just whichever you prefer they
mean the same thing let's look at then
the next pair a ton of and tons of again
just like a lot of and lots of these
mean the same thing the difference
between these is the level so if we
imagine on a scale a lot of is maybe
here tons up is here it's a lot more
it's a lot more so tons of or a ton of
is a lot more than lots of or a lot of
so on a scale tons of is here a lot of
or a lotta is down here so this is for
when we want to express a much higher
amount of something so if you need a
hint you can use ton ton is a
measurement a measurement a very large
measurement so remember that ton refers
to very very big heavy things some
examples we have a ton of work to do we
have a ton of work to do work is an
uncountable noun know ESTs we have a ton
of work to do or they have tons of pets
they have tons of pets pets is a
countable noun we need to use the plural
form pets here again I could swap these
if I wanted to we have tons of work to
do is okay and they have a ton of pets
is also okay so again this pair and this
pair follow the same rule you can choose
whichever one you prefer okay let's
continue on to this next group there are
actually three here because I feel that
these expressions are all about this
same level so we have a lot of a ton of
or tons of and then a bunch of or
bunches of or plenty of for some people
it might come this one might come
between tons of and a lot of for some
people it might be a little bit further
down its
you have to feel for yourself what this
means I like to imagine this expression
bunches of or a bunch of like a bunch of
flowers we use the expression a bunch of
flowers to talk about a bouquet of
flowers like that group of flowers we
give as a present so we can imagine
there are many there are lots of flowers
inside a bunch so in my mind I imagine
like a bunch of kind of that's sort of
the image I have in terms of quantity
like how many flowers are in a bunch of
flowers that might be helpful for you
plenty of sounds like a lot of something
and it's like there's a relaxed feeling
about that so let's look at some example
sentences that use these first bunches
of money were stolen from the store
bunches of money were stolen from the
store so money is my uncountable noun
I've used bunches here to compare this
with a countable noun a bunch of my
co-workers went out for a drink a bunch
of my co-workers went out for a drink so
this means a lot of people or maybe a
group of people that had many people in
it went out for a drink so the idea here
is that there's some kind of group I
feel that's kind of the image of a bunch
so plenty also has this this feeling of
a lot of something yes but there's also
kind of this relaxed casual feel we tend
to use bunch and bunches when there's a
little bit of a casual feel to you will
often hear plenty of in this expression
we have plenty of time we have plenty of
time
you might hear lots of time to you we
have lots of time plenty of time sounds
like don't worry it's nothing to worry
about we have a lot of time to do this
thing we need to do there's plenty of
time that's often the voice that's used
so it has this idea behind it of like
relaxation or being able to do something
at an easy pace we have plenty of time
so we do not have this form or plenty of
but again we can use this with countable
or uncountable
- bull nouns okay so let's move along
then to the next part as I said this
next part will include some differences
some important differences between
countable and uncountable nouns the
difference is in these words here
actually first I have this despair a
large amount of and a large number of
something so when should we use these
this word amount we use this when we're
talking about uncountable nouns a large
amount of uncountable noun we use number
for countable nouns a large number of
countable nouns so this is the
difference between these two let's take
a look at some examples first a large
amount of the population got sick a
large amount of the population got sick
so here we're talking about a population
we're not talking about like one person
we're talking about the whole population
of a city so an entire group of people
so we use amount to do that a large
amount of the population got sick we can
compare this to a large number of
students improved a large number of
students improved so here I've used
number because students is my countable
noun in the plural form a large number
of students improved so please keep this
difference in mind we'll see the same
thing down here a huge amount of or a
huge number of follows this same pattern
the difference here is in this word huge
vs. large so large means big so we don't
say big really in this case we use large
and it tends to sound a little more
formal these sound a bit more formal
than these do these expressions are
fairly casual here however huge means
very very very very big so for like an
animal it would be an elephant is very
big that's a huge animal may be a large
animal would be a horse for example a
huge animal is an elephant so that's the
difference in size here so when you're
thinking
about concepts you can kind of use that
as like the guideline for your
vocabulary decision-making so we follow
the same uncountable countable rule here
a huge amount of count sorry uncountable
nouns and a huge number of countable
nouns so there was a huge amount of
interest in our project so interest is
uncountable
we don't say one interest to interest
there was a huge amount of interest
uncountable noun in our project on the
other hand a huge number of illnesses
are treatable illnesses so illness means
a sickness a type of disease a huge
number of illnesses are treatable
so here the plural form illnesses shows
it's the plural of the the countable
noun illness illness a huge number of
illnesses are treatable able to be
treated or cured finally then is this
word several several this is special
because several is used only for
countable nouns only for countable nouns
we do not use several with uncountable
nouns so several is more than just two
or three or four I think a good hint is
here several sounds like seven but it
doesn't mean seven it means like a good
number of ideas in this case or a good
number of something so it's not a small
amount but it's not quite a lot either
it's kind of near the middle the bottom
middle of a scale so in this case she
has several ideas again countable noun
so we need to use the plural form here
she has several ideas so this is only
for countable nouns please be careful
with that okay so this is an
introduction to some common expressions
we use to talk about large amounts so I
hope that this was helpful for you again
if you want to know more about countable
and uncountable nouns please search the
English class 101 channel for some
information for some videos about those
topics of course if you have any
questions or comments or
if you want to practice making sentences
with any of these points please feel
free to do so in the comment section of
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thanks very much for watching this
lesson and I will see you again soon bye
bye
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