Quantifiers come before nouns and are used to give information about amounts. They often answer the questions 'how much?' or 'how many?' Quantifiers do not tell you an exact amount or number, but only tells whether the amount is large or small.
The quantifiers we use are different depending on whether the noun is count or noncount.
| Question | Quantifiers | |
|---|---|---|
| Count Nouns | How many? | few a few several quite a few a large number of the majority of many |
| Noncount Nouns | How much? | little a little a great deal of a large amount of too much |
Notice that the quantifiers 'few' and 'little' have slightly different meanings to 'a few' and 'a little.'
| few | = not many | Few people have been to my secret fort. (Not many people have been there.) |
| a few | = not very many, but some | We have a few new students at our school. (There is a small number of new students.) |
| little | = not much | Camels need little food to survive. (They don't need much food.) |
| a little | = not very much, but some | I need a little help with my homework. (I need a small amount of help.) |
There are a few quantifiers that can be used with both count and noncount nouns.
- no
- hardly any
- some
- plenty of
- a lot of/lots of
- almost all
- all
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