Brighter Grammar 1 - Margaret Macaulay 1987

Lesson Seven. Adjectives of quantity

There are several other kinds of adjectives besides adjectives of quality. There are, for example, adjectives that tell you ’how much’ or ’how many’.

I have two eyes.

There are twenty books on the desk.

These are called adjectives of quantity.

Here is a little song with some adjectives of quantity in it.

Ten green bottles

There were ten green bottles standing on the wall,

Ten green bottles standing on the wall,

And if one green bottle should accidentally fall,

There’d be nine green bottles standing on the wall.

After this verse you continue:

There were nine green bottles standing on the wall,

Nine green bottles standing on the wall,

And if one green bottle should accidentally fall,

There’d be eight green bottles standing on the wall.

Then, ’There were eight ...’ and so on, until you come to:

’There was one green bottle ...’ and the last line will be ’There’d be no green bottles standing on the wall.’ And the word no here is also an adjective of quantity.

Much and many are also adjectives of quantity. They tell us the quantity but not so definitely as the numbers one, two, three etc.

Much is used with singular nouns; many with plural nouns and we almost always use them with not or n't.

I don't have many friends in Cairo.

We didn't have much rain this morning.

There are not many apples on that tree.

I didn't eat much breakfast this morning.

Adjectives of quantity show ’how much’ or ’how many’.

Exercise

Complete the sentences with an adjective of quantity in each of the blank spaces.

1 There were ... bottles on the wall.

2 In the last verse of the song there were ... bottles on the wall.

3 There are not ... pictures in that book.

4 I have ... eyes and ... nose.

5 We hadn’t ... time to do our work.

6 Ali didn’t spend ... money on his holiday.

7 There are ... days in a week.

8 You haven’t done very ... work.

9 There are not ... watches that keep perfect time.