Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[Chan-Seung Lee]

[buddhaheart]

I think the plural �shops� is correct.

[rice07]

Hi

1. We use as much/many ... as to talk about quantity.

-- I haven't got as much money as I thought.

-- We need as many people as possible.

As much/many can be used without following nouns.

-- I ate as much as I could.

-- She didn't catch as many as she'd hoped.

And as much ... can be used as an adverb.

-- You ought to rest as much as possible.

2. emphatic use: as much as 80kg

As much/many as can be used before a number to mean " the large amount/quantity ".

-- Some of these fish can weigh as much as 80kg.

-- There are sometimes as many as 40 students in the classes.

-- As many as 100 people were killed in the air crash.

-- There are as many as five apples on the table.

-- He has as much as five dollars with him.

3. I think those expressions, 'as much as shops/shop at the supermarkets', are quite confusing to me. A growing number of consumers, shop, wholesale stores, and supermarket, all are countable nouns while much are quantifiers respectively in those two cases (#1 and #2), then which noun would much refer to? In addition, structure like as much/many as + number + noun, I would take as much/many as as a modifier used to refer to number+noun. That's to say- if we dropped that modifier from the sentence, the sentence still made sence. But see the #1 or #2, the sentences will make no sence if we drop as much as from them. I really cannot figure them out due to my poor English. Could anyone out there help me with this, please?

4. I have got a passing thought that shop seems like a verb rather than a noun???????

[rice07]

Hi Teacher Suzanne

If it's at your convenience, please help us with this point. Much obliged!