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Main Forum (Le Forum Principal) => Questions (Les Questions) => Discussion démarrée par: mamour le 30 Mar 2008 18:04

Titre: Too much too many
Posté par: mamour le 30 Mar 2008 18:04
Hi every body!!!too much et too many sont suivis par du singulier,du pluriel ou bien les deux???thank you :D
Titre: Re : Too much too many
Posté par: mamour le 30 Mar 2008 19:10
Because too many people drive too fast there is too much deaths or too many deaths?
Titre: Re : Too much too many
Posté par: Thomas le 31 Mar 2008 01:42
too many --> used with something "countable"
too much --> used with something "non-countable"

Because too many people drive too fast, there is too much death.

In this case, "death" is an abstract concept, so it is not something "countable" -- thus, you use "too much". Some words can be countable or non-countable, depending on the situation. Look at the following example...

I ate too much cake yesterday.
I ate too many cakes yesterday.


In general, plural goes with too many and singular goes with too much. The real distinction is whether or not something is countable, there is a similar difference in French:

J'ai mangé du gâteau.
J'ai mangé des gâteaux.


This is technically a difference between a partitif and an indéfini, but look at the following partitif example from English:

I ate too much of the cake.

You can see that here, too much is used with a partitif, which is not really singular or plural, but rather...well...a part of something :P

Does that help? You also see the same difference between the usage of "less" and "fewer".

And keep in mind -- this is something that native speakers mess up a lot ;) I hear people say "I watched less movies than him" or similar things quite often, even though it's incorrect.
Titre: Re : Too much too many
Posté par: mamour le 31 Mar 2008 08:44
thank you very much one more time.That's help me a lot!!  I understand the nuance;This is for homework of my niece  ;)
Titre: Re : Too much too many
Posté par: Thomas le 01 Fév 2008 12:46
If you understand something, you should trust your instincts! :)