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'How much' asks about uncountable nouns; 'how many' asks about countable nouns.
Side-by-side comparison
"How many" asks about the quantity of countable things, the ones you can number one by one: books, people, words.
How much sugar do you take in your coffee, one spoon or two?
How much does a return ticket to Barcelona cost from here?
I had no idea how much a dog walker charges until I looked it up online.
"How much" asks about the quantity of uncountable things: water, money, time, information. These are masses or concepts not counted in individual units.
How many people came to the party? It looked very crowded from outside.
How many languages can you speak? More than two is already impressive.
How many times do I have to ask you to clean your room?
Common mistake
- •"How many information did you receive?" is wrong: "information" is uncountable, use "How much information".
- •Tricky uncountable nouns: "advice", "news", "furniture", "luggage", "research", "feedback", all use "how much", never "how many".
Trick to remember it
- •Counting fingers vs measuring cup: HOW MANY = count one by one on your fingers (how many people, meetings, mistakes). HOW MUCH = pour into a cup or weigh (water, information, sugar).
- •Quick test: can you say "two ___s"? Yes = HOW MANY. No = HOW MUCH.
Quick rule
- •Common uncountables that trip people up: money, advice, information, furniture, luggage, traffic, homework, news, equipment = always "how much".
- •"People" = countable, always "how many people" (never "how much people").
- •Money trap: "how many euros?" ✓ (euros = countable) but "how much money?" ✓ (money = uncountable).
Did you know?
Some English nouns are always uncountable even though they may feel like separate things: advice, information, furniture, luggage, homework and news. You cannot say "an advice" or "two furnitures"; you say "a piece of advice" or "two pieces of furniture". That is why they go with "how much", never "how many".
Practise what you learned
Exercise 1 · Pick the right one
_____ people came to the concert?
Exercise 2 · Pick the right one
_____ milk do we need for the recipe?
Exercise 3 · Form the word
Related word pairs
One is for things you can count, the other is for things you cannot count.
One reduces uncountable things, the other reduces countable things.
'Little' has negative meaning (almost none); 'a little' has positive meaning (some). Both only with uncountable nouns.
"Much" is used with uncountable nouns (things that cannot be counted individually); "many" is used with countable nouns in the plural.
Bryan López
Founder of SpeakUP Academy