What are quantifiers?
Quantifiers are a type of deteminer. Determiners are words which come before nouns to introduce them and tell us something about them. Quantifiers tell us about the quantity of the noun. Have a look at these sentences:
- A few employees decided to go on strike.
- Many cars were involved in the race.
- Most water is good to drink.
- I have to deliver each letter separately.
All of the words in bold tell us about the quantity of the noun that they introduce. We can classify quantifiers in a few different ways:
- Inclusive and non-inclusive quantifiers
- Quantifiers which we use with countable nouns or non-countable nouns (or both)
- Quantifiers which tell us about a definite or indefinite quantity
Inclusive quantifiers
Inclusive quantifiers tell us that things are included (or not!) in a group. Have a look at these sentences:
- All clouds are made of water.
- No clouds are made of salt.
When we say “all clouds” we mean that we are including them all in a group. When we say “no clouds” we mean that we are including none of them in a group.
When we include things in a group, sometimes we’re talking about a group of two, and sometimes about a group of more than two. We can also talk about each member of the group as individuals, or about the group as a whole.
And we have different quantifiers for each case.
“All” and “no” in the examples above are talking about a group of more than two things and refer to the group as a whole. Have a look at the examples in the table below and see if you agree with how we’ve classified them:
| Group of 2 | Group of more than 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Referring to the members of the group as individuals | Either car is fine, just choose one! Neither toy made the child happy. |
Each tool has a different function. Every man to himself. |
| Referring to the group as a whole | Both cars are fine, just choose one! | All clouds are made of water. She had no legal rights. |
Non-inclusive quantifiers
All other quantifiers don’t refer specifically to a group of people or things, but about the quantity in general. We call these non-inclusive quantifiers. When we talk about quantity in general, it’s useful to know if we’re talking about a large quantity, a moderate quantity or a small quantity. Again, we have different quantifiers for each case.
Large quantity – much, many, a lot
“Much”, “many” and “a lot” are some of the quantifiers which tell us that we have a large quantity of something. We use “much” to introduce non-countable nouns and “many” to introduce countable nouns.
- I have many friends.
- I have much money.
When you say these sentences though, they may sound a little formal. That’s because in affirmative sentences it’s much more common in spoken English to use “a lot of”:
- I have a lot of friends.
- I have a lot of money.
In negative sentences “much” and “many” work fine…
- I don’t have many friends.
- I don’t have much money.
…but of course, because the sentences are negative, we’re no longer talking about a large quantity but about a small quantity!
We can also use “much” and “many” to ask a question for which the answer will be another quantifier:
- How much money do you have? (I only have a little money.)
- How many biscuits are left in the tin? (Plenty!)
Moderate quantity – some and any
“Some” and “any” both normally mean “a moderate amount” and can introduce both countable and non-countable nouns. So what’s the difference between the two? Well, first of all, we normally use “some” in affirmative statements, and “any” in questions and negative statements:
- I have some friends in Italy.
- I don’t have any friends in Italy.
- Do you have any friends in Italy?
This “rule” works most of the time but not always. Have a look at these sentences:
- You can take any card you like.
- You can take any cards you like.
These are not questions or negative statements, so why do we use “any” here? Well, in the first sentence we use “any” because we want to suggest that you have an unlimited choice (from the pack of 52 cards). In the second sentence we’re suggesting not only unlimited choice, but an unrestricted quantity of cards as well.
Now have a look at these sentences:
- Would you like some cakes?
- Can I borrow some cash?
The “rule” doesn’t work here either – we’ve used “some” in a question. So what makes it okay to use “some” in these questions? Well, here we’re making an offer or a suggestion (in the first sentence) and a request (in the second). In both cases we normally expect the answer to be yes. So in offers, suggestions and requests where we’re reasonably confident that the answer will be yes, “some” works better than “any”.
Small quantity – Few, a few, little and a little
These quantifiers tell us that we’re talking about a small quantity of something. “Few” and “a few” introduce countable nouns; “little” and “a little” introduce non-countable nouns. So why do we need one version of each with “a” and one without? Have a look at these sentences:
- I have a few friends.
- I have a little money.
- I have few friends.
- I have little money.
Can you see any difference in the meaning between the first two sentences and the second two? Imagine someone saying the first two sentences to you – they would probably sound quite happy and positive, as if they had a sufficient number of friends or a sufficient amount of money – not a large number or amount, but enough.
Now imagine someone saying the last two sentences to you. With these ones the person might sound sad or negative, and that’s because she is telling you that the number of friends she has, or the amount of money, is not enough for her. Using “few” and “little” in their negative sense, without “a” like this is quite formal though, and we would normally choose to say something like:
- I don’t have many friends.
- I don’t have much money.
Quantifiers with countable and non-countable nouns
Let’s have a look now at another way to categorise quantifiers: whether they are used with countable or non-countable nouns.
Have a look again at two examples we saw earlier:
- A few employees decided to go on strike.
- Many cars were involved in the race.
You’ll see that these quantifiers are being used with countable nouns. If you try saying them with a non-countable noun like “water” you’ll see that they don’t sound right at all. You may also have noticed that the nouns are not only countable, but also plural. For most quantifiers that we use with countable nouns the noun must be plural. Here are some more examples:
- I have several classes today.
- Do you have a couple of minutes?
There are a few though that we use with singular countable nouns:
- Make sure you pick up every piece of rubbish.
- Each student had to take the exam.
- No stone was left unturned. (“No” can also be used with plural countable nouns – “No stones were left unturned”).
If there are some quantifiers that we can only use with countable nouns, then there must be some that we can only use with non-countable nouns. Here are some of them. (Again, if you try saying these ones with a countable noun like “apples” you’ll see that they don’t sound right.)
- I don’t have much milk in my coffee.
- Can I have a little time alone?
- He spent a great deal of money on the house.
A lot of quantifiers can be used with both countable and non-countable nouns. Some of these are:
some, any, more, most, all, a lot of, none of, no, enough
- Some information was leaked to the press. (non-countable)
- Some trees lose their leaves in the winter. (countable)
- There was a lot of traffic on the roads. (non-countable)
- There are a lot of snails in my garden. (countable)
Quantifiers which tell us about a definite or indefinite quantity
All of the quantifiers we’ve seen so far have told us about an indefinite quantity. If we say “I have a little money”, you know that it is a small amount, but you don’t know how much exactly. “Many cars” could mean 20 or 50 or 100 – we don’t know how many exactly, but it is a quantity nonetheless.
There is a group of quantifiers, though, which tell us a definite quantity. These are, quite simply, numbers!
Since numbers tell us exactly how many of something we have, we can only use them with countable nouns. It makes no sense to say “I have ten salt”, because I need to be able to define individual units of something if I want to count ten of them.
- I have ten apples.
- There are three hundred people in the hall.
