Quantifiers

Learn about quantifiers like all, some, enough and less and do the exercises to practise using them.

Level: beginner

We use quantifiers when we want to give someone information about the number of something: how much or how many.

Sometimes we use a quantifier in the place of a determiner:

Most children start school at the age of five.
We ate some bread and butter.
We saw lots of birds.

Quantifiers with count and uncount nouns

We can use these quantifiers with both count and uncount nouns:

all	some	more	a lot of	enough
no	any	most	lots of	less

We have lots of time.
Joe has lots of friends.
I can't go out. I've got no money.
There was a lot of food but no drinks.

Quantifiers with count and uncount nouns 1: MultipleChoice_MTU5NTU=
Quantifiers with count and uncount nouns 2: GapFillTyping_MTU3NTQ=

Level: intermediate

These more colloquial forms are also used with both count and uncount nouns:

plenty of

heaps of

a load of

loads of

tons of

We have loads of time.
Joe has plenty of friends.
There was heaps of food.

Level: beginner

some and any

We do not normally use the quantifier some in negative and interrogative sentences. We normally use any:

Do you have any children?
Did you see any friends?
We don't have any children.
I didn't see any friends.
We saw some lions at the zoo, but we didn't see any tigers.

but we can use some for offers and requests:

Would you like some tea?
I want some apples, please.

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some and any 2: GapFillTyping_MTU3NTg=

Quantifiers with count nouns

Some quantifiers can be used only with count nouns:

(not) many	each	either	(a) few
several	both	neither	fewer

These more colloquial forms are used only with count nouns:

a couple of

hundreds of

thousands of

I’ll be back in a couple of minutes.
There were hundreds of people at the meeting.

Quantifiers with uncount nouns

Some quantifiers can be used only with uncount nouns:

(not) much

a bit of

a little

Would you like a little wine?
Could I have a bit of butter, please?

These quantifiers are used particularly with abstract nouns such as time, money and trouble:

a great deal of

a good deal of

It will probably cost a great deal of money.
He spent a good deal of time watching television.

Quantifiers with count and uncount nouns 3: Matching_MTU3ODI=
Quantifiers with count and uncount nouns 4: GapFillTyping_MTU3ODU=

Level: intermediate

Members of groups

We put a noun directly after a quantifier when we are talking about members of a group in general:

Few snakes are dangerous.
Most children like chocolate.
I never have enough money.

but if we are talking about members of a specific group, we use of the as well:

Few of the snakes in this zoo are dangerous.
Most of the boys at my school play football.
He’s spent all (of) the money that we gave him.
Both (of) the chairs in my office are broken.

Note: with all and both, we don’t need to use of. We can say all the … and both the … .

***both, either* and *neither***

If we are talking about two people or things, we use the quantifiers both, either and neither:

One supermarket	Two supermarkets	More than two supermarkets
The supermarket was closed.	Both the supermarkets were closed.	All the supermarkets were closed.
The supermarket wasn’t open.	Neither of the supermarkets was open.	None of the supermarkets were open.
I don’t think the supermarket was open.	I don’t think either of the supermarkets was open.	I don’t think any of the supermarkets were open.

Note that nouns with both have a plural verb but nouns with either and neither have a singular verb.

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both, either and neither 2: GapFillTyping_MTU3ODc=

***every* and *each***

We use the quantifiers every and each with singular nouns to mean all:

There was a party in every street. (= There were parties in all the streets.)
Every shop was decorated with flowers. (= All the shops were decorated with flowers.)
Each child was given a prize. (= All the children were given a prize.)
There was a prize in each competition. (= There were prizes in all the competitions.)

We often use every to talk about times like days, weeks and years:

When we were children, we had holidays at our grandmother's every year.
When we stayed at my grandmother's house, we went to the beach every day.
We visit our daughter every Christmas.

We do not use a determiner with every and each:

Every shop was decorated with flowers. (NOT ~~The every shop~~)
Each child was given a prize. (NOT ~~The each child~~)

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Hello Ahmed Imam,

Grammatically, the sentence is fine. Obviously, whether or not it makes sense in a given context will depend on the context.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello. Could you please help me? Is the following sentence correct? Why? - Too heavy is the table to move. Thank you.

Hello Ahmed Imam,

No, I'm afraid that's not correct. I'd recommend 'The table is too heavy to move'.

All the best,

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello. Is the following sentence correct? What's wrong with it? - Neither my parents was at home when I arrived. Thank you.

Hello Ahmed Imam,

If you change it to 'Neither of my parents ...' it will be correct.

All the best,

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello. What is the difference of "all" in the three sentences? - All of us weren’t happy with the result. - We all weren’t happy with the result. - We weren’t all happy with the result. Thank you.

Hi Ahmed Imam,

The examples are interesting!

Sentences 1 and 2 mean that 100% of the people were unhappy (i.e. nobody was happy). In these two sentences, all relates to the subject of the sentence.

Sentence 3 means that some people were happy, but not all of them. This meaning is different from sentences 1 and 2 because of the word order: all is after the negative (weren't) in the word order. 'Not all' means that there is some quantity (i.e. greater than 0), but not as much as 100%.

Does that make sense?

Best wishes,

Jonathan

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello again. In the following sentence, isn't "all" an adverb relating to "happy"? I think "not all happy" means "not very happy". 3- We weren’t all happy with the result. Thank you.

Hello Ahmed Imam,

No, in this sentence, 'all' modifies the subject 'we' -- it's another way of saying 'Not all of us were happy with the result'.

When 'all' modifies the subject, it can go in the same position as an adverb. You can see more about this in this explanation of All as an adverb).

All the best,

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello. Are the following sentences correct? What is the difference in meaning? 1- It's not healthy to stay in bed all day. 2- It's not healthy to stay in bed every day. Thank you.

Hello Ahmed Imam,

All day means that you do not get up at all in a twenty-four hour period. It describes what you do on a particular day. It does tell us if you do the same on other days.

Every day means that you are in bed for multiple days without change.

It's quite possible for someone to stay in bed all day, every day.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Is it possible to say like these? "There are heaps of pumpkins in the warehouse ." "I saw a load pumpkins in the basket. " " There are tons of pumpkins in the garage".

Hi Rafaela1,

Yes :) These quantity expressions are all commonly used. Your sentences 1 and 3 are correctly written. Sentence 2 needs of: a load of pumpkins.

Best wishes,

Jonathan

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello. Is the following sentence correct or there is something wrong? If it is wrong, how can I say it correctly? - There are times when people can't work so hard to live comfortably. Thank you.

Hello Ahmed Imam,

No, the sentence is not correct. If I understand you correctly, then you want to say that sometimes it's not possible for people to live comfortably, no matter how hard they work. If so, you could say this:

There are times when people can't live comfortably, no matter how hard they work.

There are times when people can't live comfortably, however hard they work.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello again Peter. What about the following one? Is it correct? - There are times when people can't work hard enough to live comfortably. Thank you.

Hello Ahmed Imam,

The sentence is fine grammatically, but I'm not sure it means what you intend.

The suggestion in your sentence is that people could live comfortably if they were able to work harder. In other words, it suggests that the problem is with the people and their inability to work hard, not with the circumstances around them.

In my examples, the meaning was different. My sentences meant that people work hard, but it is not enough. In other words, they cannot achieve a comfortable life even if they work hard.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello. Are the following two sentences correct? If so, What is the difference between them? - Ali neither wrote nor phoned. - Neither did Ali write nor did he phone. Thank you.

Hi Ahmed Imam,

Yes, both are correct, and the meaning is the same. But the second sentence, with its greater amount of structural repetition, sounds more formal in style.

Best wishes,

Jonathan

The LearnEnglish Team

Hi sir , I was wondering about There was a lot of food and no drinks Why drink has s ? Thank you

Hi Pyae phyo maung,

Drink is a countable noun and has a plural form. When we use no to mean not any, we use the plural:

There weren't any drinks > There were no drinks.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Why are my comments unpublished?!

Hello Ahmed Dawoud,

All comments on LearnEnglish are moderated before they are published. That means a member of the LearnEnglish Team reads your comment to ensure it complies with site rules and is not advertising/spam etc.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Hi, Please could you tell me what is the correct choice and why ? I bought two books but I haven't read ( either / both ) of them yet. Thanks in advance

Hi Ahmed Dawoud,

The correct choice here is either with the meaning not one and not the other.

It's unusual to use 'both' in a negative sentence. We can do it when we want to express the meaning of only one and not the other, and we need to include a phrase to make this clear:

I bought two books but I haven't read both, only one of them so far.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

It's really educative.

Hello! I was wondering if money is an abstract or concrete noun. And if it is both, is it always uncountable? Thank you. Victoria

Hello Victoria

Yes, 'money' is always an uncount noun. There might be some instances where it's more abstract, but in general it's a concrete noun.

All the best

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Thanks a lot for you help Kirk ;-)!!

Hi Kirk! This time my doubt is about the use of "any" in negative and interrogative sentences with countable singular nouns. So far I have said: NEGATIVE: — "I don't have a car" meaning "No tengo (un) coche" — "There isn't an apple in the tree" meaning "No hay una manzana en el árbol" — "Do you have a car?" meaning "¿Tienes (un) coche?" — "Is there an apple in the tree?" meaning "¿Hay una manzana en el árbol?" INTERROGATIVE: — I don't have any carS meaning "No tengo ningún coche" and "No tengo coches" — "There aren't any appleS in the tree" meaning "No hay ninguna manzana en el árbol" and "No hay manzanas en el árbol" — "Do you have any carS?" meaning "¿Tienes algún coche?" and "¿Tienes coches?" — "Are there any appleS in the tree?" meaning " ¿Hay alguna manzana en el árbol?" and "¿Hay manzanas en el árbol?" (If any translation is wrong please let me know Kirk...) => The case is that recently I've come across in some texts the following: — "I don't have any car" and — "Is there any apple" Is this a mistake??? If not, which are the right translations for these sentences? Thank you very much in advance for your help to clear these doubts!

Hi Gloria

We don't do translations, but I can say your translations all look correct to me. The two sentences you came across sound unnatural to me. Perhaps in some very specific context they could be correct and natural, but in general I'd just say 'I don't have a car' and 'Are there any apples?'

Hope this helps.

All the best

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello， All of my money , All my money Both of my chair, Both my chair Which one is correct?

Hello Zoe0615,

Both All of my money and All my money are correct. The meaning is the same.

With both (of), you need to use a plural noun (chairs not chair). If the noun is plural then you can say either Both of my... or Both my... Again, the meaning is the same.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello, The use of "Either, Or" and "Neither, Nor" was not mentioned here, can I find it on another page? Or could you explain when do we use them? Is it more common to use them in speaking or writing? Do they make the sentence more formal or informal? Thank you.

Hello H_L,

Either... or is commonly used and is neutral in terms of style/register.

She is either a doctor or a nurse - I can't remember which.

When we have a negative verb, we often use only or:

I don't know her job, but she isn't a doctor or a nurse.

We can use neither... nor with a positive verb, but it is very formal:

I don't know her job, but she is neither a doctor nor a nurse.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello. Is the following sentence correct and meaningful using "too.... to"? - That opportunity was too good to miss. Thank you.

Hello Ahmed Iman,

Yes, that is correct. Well done!

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Hai He is as sweet as me--is it grammatically correct?

Hello Yogambigai

Could you please post this on a relevant page? For example: 'as' and 'like'.

Thanks in advance.

All the best

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello I have a doubt. Roses blossomed soon this spring -- is it grammatically correct?

Hello Yogambigai,

You need to use a different word than soon:

The roses blossomed early this spring.

I think the definite article (the) is likely as you are probably talking about certain roses (in your garden, in your region etc) rather than all roses in general.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Thank you sir

Haiiii Another one sir Why we use 'early' instead of soon?

Hello again Yogambigai

'soon' means in a short time from now at the moment of speaking. 'early' is more relative -- it means before the other moment of time referenced.

Since you say 'blossomed', which indicates the past, it doesn't make sense to refer to a short time from then by using the word 'soon', because that time has already passed.

Does that make sense?

All the best

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello, Teacher Could you please explain this grammar case to me? 1- look at these sentences : We have one less packet of salt. We have one packet less of salt. Can we replace "one" with the indefinite article "a" especially before the word "less" ? 2- can we use indefinite articles before the comparative words "less" and "more" ? Ex : We have a less chair in the room . ( I mean with this sentence that we have lack of one chair.) 3- is it grammatically correct to say : We have less a packet of salt . ( I mean with this that we missed one packet of salt, we have lack of one packet of salt.) And is the meaning of the sentence correct? If it's wrong, what should it be ?.

Hello Karimhadi,

1. In the first sentence you cannot replace one with a. You need to use a number:

one less packet

two less packets

In the second sentence I think it is possible to replace one with a, but the original version is much more common.

2. No, as with the first example, you cannot use an article here. You need to use a number.

3. The sentence is not correct. As with the first examples, you can say one packet less, one less packet or a packet less. The last is the least common formulation.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Many thanks for your ,sir

How many people in this class have short hair? Why is "the" not used in this sentence before "people"? "In this class" is an adjective phrase describing people so "the" should be used before people...

Hello Piyush_kashyap,

After How much and How many we do not use articles unless we use of:

How many people in this class have short hair?

How many of the people in this class have short hair?

The same is true with questions starting with Which:

Which people in this class have short hair?

Which of the people in this class have short hair?

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

So which sentence is correct? how many people in this class have short hair? Or How many of the people in this class have short hair? What difference does " of the" make in second sentence?

Quantifiers

Quantifiers with count and uncount nouns

some and any

Quantifiers with count nouns

Quantifiers with uncount nouns

Members of groups

both, either and neither

every and each

***both, either* and *neither***

***every* and *each***