Comparing Quantity

There are couple different ways to make comparisons of quantity. With non-count nouns like coffee, bread, or love, we use more than and less than. For example:

There is less ice cream in my bowl than in Sarah’s bowl.
My mother loves me more than she loves my sister.

For countable nouns like apples, people, or records, we use more than and fewer than to make comparisons of quantity. For example:

I have more records than my brother.
Jake has fewer friends than Paul.

To show that two things have the same quantity, we use as much as and as little as for non-count nouns. For countable nouns, we use as many as and as few as. For example:

Jason is taking as many classes this year as he did last year.
I hate broccoli as much as I hate green beans.
I eat as little junk food as my sister does, but I still weigh more than her.
There are as few people at this movie as there were at the last movie we saw.

Comparing Quantity Grammar Quiz

Comparing Quantity Lessons:

Working Long Hours	Layoffs	Visiting Parents	Sorority Row
Zombieland	Reading Books	Q&A with Hutch from the Thermals	More or Less - With Comparisons of Quantity

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Albadawi

Sweden

MANY THANKS

atifatef

Palestinian Territory, Occupied

Really it is a valuable information. Thanks a lot. Have a nice day.

maibeth

Colombia

thank it is more clean for me

um ramzi

Saudi Arabia

thanks

mr.polah

Indonesia

thanks it helps me a lot

Amesmile

Cote D'Ivoire

great lesson, but it's complicated

jos361

United States

Okay MmLLoO,

Here it goes. More often than not, nouns in English are going to be count nouns. There are simply way more of them. That said, there are 5 types of non count nouns.

1. If a noun has no distict seperate parts and we only look at the whole, it's probably a non count noun. This includes many types of food and drinks as well as substances.

Examples: milk, wine, oil, bread, yogurt, electrcity, meat, butter, water, pork, soup, air, oxygen, iron, hydrogen, coffee, water, blood, thunder, lightning, cholesterol, paper, poultry

2. Nouns that have parts that are too small or insignificant to count.

Examples: rice, hair, sand, sugar, popcorn, corn, salt, snow, grass

3. Nouns that are classes or categories of things.

Examples: money, cash, currency (nickles, dimes, dollars, euros)

food (vegetables, meat, spaghetti)

furniture (chairs, tables, beds)

makeup (lipstick, mascara, eye shadow)

4. Nouns that are abstractions are non count nouns.

Examples: love, life, happiness, nutrition, education, patience, poverty, luck, truth, time, beauty, crime, advice, unemployment, pollution, art

5. Nouns that are subjects of study

Examples: history, grammar, biology, chemistry, geometry

Some nouns can be both non count and count depending on the context, like a lot of food and drinks.

Order "two coffees" in a coffeeshop and it's correct because it's understood you mean "two cups of coffee."

Same with fruit. "I eat a lot of fruit everyday." (category of food = non count)

"Oranges and grapefruits are fruits that contain Vitamin C." (type of fruit = count)

There are exceptions of course, but Englsh speakers will have no trouble understanding what you mean if you make a mistake with non count and count nouns. Plus, it's cute and endearing to hear non-native speakers say "I'd like three meats."

Etwas besser?