As many as | As much as

Do your remember when we use many, and when we use much?

We use many for countable nouns: many people, many places, many poems.

We use much for uncountable nouns: much food, much water, much money.

In our blog about comparing nouns, we learnt that we use as…as to compare two nouns:

For example: She is as tall as her sister.

We can do the same thing with many and much to compare quantities.

To do this, we use:

as + much + as 

or

as + many + as

Now, we will make some examples using the as much/many as structure.

AS MUCH AS

Laura has €50. Caroline also has €50. Laura has as much money as Caroline.

Kelly wears a lot of perfume. Pam wears a lot of perfume. Kelly wears as much perfume as Pam.

Phyliss has a plate of food for lunch. Kevin has a plate of food for lunch too. Phyliss has as much food for lunch as Kevin.

AS MANY AS

Michael ate 3 donuts. Stanley also ate 3 donuts. Michael ate as many donuts as Stanley.

Oscar has 2 computers. Angela has 2 computers too. Oscar has as many computers as Angela.

Erin answers 20 phone calls a day. Pam answers 20 phone calls a day. Erin answers as many phone calls as Pam does.

Take a look at the Test Yourself section and use as…as to make sentences.

When comparing amounts or quantities that are not the same we simply add not after the auxiliary verb.

If Michael has €20 and Stanley has €10, we can say: Stanley does not have as much money as Michael.

If there are 100 people at Jim’s party and only 50 people at Dwight’s party, we can say:

There are not as many people at Dwight’s party as Jim’s.