Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[Teo]

1. not many clothes (binoculars, pants, shorts, scissors...)
2. not much clothes (binoculars, pants, shorts, scissors...)
3. a few clothes (binoculars, pants, shorts, scissors...)
4. a little clothes (binoculars, pants, shorts, scissors...)
5. few clothes (binoculars, pants, shorts, scissors...)
6. little clothes (binoculars, pants, shorts, scissors...)
7. several clothes (binoculars, pants, shorts, scissors...)
Which of the above expressions is not acceptable?
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Thank you very much for your reply.

[mukemmale]

You can't say "a little clothes".
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born to lose, losing to live, living to die...

[advoca]

Hi Teo,

First, binoculars and scissors are not clothes. Be careful here.

You can say not many binoculars, pants, shorts, scissors.
You can not say not much binoculars, pants, shorts, scissors.

You can say a few binoculars, pants, shorts, scissors.
You can not say a little clothes, pants, shorts, or a little binoculars or scissors.

You can say a few clothes, pants, shorts, or a few binoculars, scissors.
You can say little clothes, pants, shorts, or little binoculars, scissors but only if you mean they are small.

You can say several clothes, pants, shorts, binoculars, scissors.

Does this help?

[Teo]

1. not many clothes (binoculars, pants, shorts, scissors...)
2. not much clothes (binoculars, pants, shorts, scissors...)
3. a few clothes (binoculars, pants, shorts, scissors...)
4. a little clothes (binoculars, pants, shorts, scissors...)
5. few clothes (binoculars, pants, shorts, scissors...)
6. little clothes (binoculars, pants, shorts, scissors...)
7. several clothes (binoculars, pants, shorts, scissors...)
Which of the above expressions is not acceptable?
Re. 'clothes': 2,4,6
Re. other nouns: all (these words can be counted only as 'pairs of...')

http://www.englishclub.com/esl-forums/viewtopic.php?p=269277#269277
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Thank you very much for your reply.