quantity phrase + uncountable noun – English Grammar Profiler

The English Grammar Profile (EGP) claims that there are over 1000 grammar points in its inventory.  However, there are numerous points that are overlapping.  This post shows 3 posts that overlap and clash at other levels.

B1  point 34 in the category of NOUNS is defined as:

uncountable nouns with an increasing range of determiners/quantity words and phrases including ‘much’, ‘a bit of’, ‘a little bit of’, ‘enough’, ‘further’, ‘plenty of’, ‘loads of’.

One of the EGP examples includes: “… can’t spend much time …” = A2 ‘much‘ in a negative context

This point overlaps highly with two other B1 points:

B1 point 43 in the category of DETERMINERS/quantity:

increasing range of quantifying determiners with both plural nouns and uncountable nouns (‘most’, ‘enough’, ‘plenty of’, ‘loads of’).

B1 Point 49 in DETERMINERS is defined as:

quantifying determiners with uncountable nouns, often in informal and/or spoken contexts (‘a little’, ‘a bit of’ and ‘a little bit of’)

Some iWeb searches:

*the countable nouns were removed

much _NN

1 MUCH TIME 190225

Far too much time is spent on screens.  

*Notice the determiner “much” is premodified by the intensifiers “Far too“

2 MUCH MONEY 106499 3 MUCH FUN 82964

4 MUCH INFORMATION 44939

5 MUCH ATTENTION 35781 6 MUCH WORK 32876 7 MUCH WATER 28428 8 MUCH POWER 24138

9 MUCH EFFORT 23797

10 MUCH SPACE 23737

Second, the apartment doesn’t have as much space as the house,

so I think the house is better for you 

because you have a family.

Arabic male, level 3, writing class.

*note there is no ‘as much * as’ structure in the EGP or EVP.

11 MUCH TROUBLE 23563 12 MUCH ENERGY 20460 13 MUCH WEIGHT 20422 14 MUCH DIFFERENCE 19948 15 MUCH SENSE 19214 16 MUCH DETAIL 17607 17 MUCH PRESSURE 16723 18 MUCH ROOM 16456 19 MUCH DAMAGE 16308

20 MUCH DATA 13723

a bit of _NN

1 A BIT OF TIME 21122 2 A BIT OF WORK 7680 3 A BIT OF RESEARCH 7348 4 A BIT OF FUN 7037 5 A BIT OF MONEY 6547 6 A BIT OF LUCK 3938 7 A BIT OF WATER 3636 8 A BIT OF TROUBLE 3468 9 A BIT OF PRACTICE 3112 10 A BIT OF HELP 2705 11 A BIT OF HISTORY 2668 12 A BIT OF EFFORT 2582 13 A BIT OF BACKGROUND 2566 14 A BIT OF WEIGHT 2202

15 A BIT OF INFORMATION 2156

16 A BIT OF SPACE 1946 17 A BIT OF EXPERIENCE 1643 18 A BIT OF PRESSURE 1561 19 A BIT OF ADVICE 1532

20 A BIT OF CASH 1531

1 A LITTLE BIT OF TIME 5577 2 A LITTLE BIT OF MONEY 2315 3 A LITTLE BIT OF WORK 1849 4 A LITTLE BIT OF WATER 1730 5 A LITTLE BIT OF RESEARCH 1610 6 A LITTLE BIT OF LUCK 1259 7 A LITTLE BIT OF HELP 1116 8 A LITTLE BIT OF EFFORT 1020 9 A LITTLE BIT OF FUN 922 10 A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY 820 11 A LITTLE BIT OF PRACTICE 788 12 A LITTLE BIT OF BACKGROUND 653

13 A LITTLE BIT OF INFORMATION 652

14 A LITTLE BIT OF KNOWLEDGE 535 15 A LITTLE BIT OF PRESSURE 533 16 A LITTLE BIT OF OIL 527 17 A LITTLE BIT OF TROUBLE 513 18 A LITTLE BIT OF PLANNING 499

19 A LITTLE BIT OF SPACE 486

20 A LITTLE BIT OF PATIENCE 483

1 ENOUGH TIME 91376 2 ENOUGH MONEY 52892 3 ENOUGH ROOM 29251

4 ENOUGH SPACE 24176

5 ENOUGH WATER 22289

6 ENOUGH INFORMATION 20234

7 ENOUGH PEOPLE 19439 8 ENOUGH POWER 16208 9 ENOUGH FOOD 13025 10 ENOUGH SLEEP 11697 11 ENOUGH EVIDENCE 11296 12 ENOUGH ENERGY 10362 13 ENOUGH DATA 6785 14 ENOUGH ATTENTION 6319

15 ENOUGH CASH 5847

16 ENOUGH PRESSURE 4654

18 ENOUGH PROTEIN 4305 19 ENOUGH AIR 4174

20 ENOUGH RESOURCES 4143

1 FURTHER INFORMATION 120868

PELIC STUDENT:

Should you require any further information, 

please contact me.

Arabic female level 5 grammar class.

3 FURTHER RESEARCH 21433
4 FURTHER INVESTIGATION 18494

6 FURTHER STUDY 15926 7 FURTHER ADO 15830 8 FURTHER EDUCATION 14134 9 FURTHER DEVELOPMENT 13819 10 FURTHER ACTION 13433 11 FURTHER ASSISTANCE 11811

12 FURTHER EVIDENCE 11724

14 FURTHER DAMAGE 7998 15 FURTHER ANALYSIS 7944 16 FURTHER DISCUSSION 7691 17 FURTHER NOTICE 7432 18 FURTHER READING 7322 19 FURTHER TESTING 6067

20 FURTHER DETAIL 5867

1 PLENTY OF TIME 54039 2 PLENTY OF ROOM 40980

3 PLENTY OF SPACE 21782

4 PLENTY OF WATER 20319

10 PLENTY OF STORAGE 6972

12 PLENTY OF POWER 6067
13 PLENTY OF OPPORTUNITY 5669

16 PLENTY OF FOOD 4897 17 PLENTY OF MONEY 4219

18 PLENTY OF WORK 3989

20 PLENTY OF EXPERIENCE 3573

(most of the following would be C1 hyperbole)

1 LOADS OF FUN 4024

3 LOADS OF MONEY 2411 4 LOADS OF TIME 1895

5 LOADS OF LAUNDRY 1389

7 LOADS OF STUFF 957 8 LOADS OF INFORMATION 888

9 LOADS OF SPACE 848

11 LOADS OF ROOM 672
12 LOADS OF CASH 657 13 LOADS OF OPTIONS 631

14 LOADS OF WATER 611

16 LOADS OF STORAGE 519

19 LOADS OF ENERGY 455

A2: advice, air, bit, cash, detail, difference, enough, further, history, information, luck, notice, oil, practice, space B1:

action, attention, background, damage, development, discussion, education, effort, energy,

experience, knowledge, loads, opportunity, planning, plenty, power, research, sense, stuff, testing, trouble, weight B2: analysis, assistance, data, evidence, investigation, laundry, patience, pressure, storage C1:

protein

EXPERT EXAMPLE with ‘much’:

A handwritten letter shows how much time the sender has taken in writing the letter,

and in selecting the words to express his thoughts

 as there is no option to delete or copy in the handwritten letter,

and if any one of you gets a handwritten letter,

it is always a welcome surprise

and also shows how important you are in the life of the sender.

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