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量詞

量詞

與冠詞一樣，量詞 (quantifiers) 也是放在名詞前面並修飾名詞的字。它們告訴我們「多少」(how many or how much)。如何挑選正確的的量詞，端視你對可數名詞與不可數名詞之區別的瞭解程度而定。我們以可數名詞 trees 和不可數名詞 dancing 來做說明：

下列量詞用在可數名詞：

    many trees
    a few trees
    few trees
    several trees
    a couple of trees
    none of the trees

下列量詞用在不可數名詞：

    not much dancing
    a little dancing
    little dancing
    a bit of dancing
    a good deal of dancing
    a great deal of dancing
    no dancing

下列量詞用在可數名詞和不可數名詞：

    all of the trees/dancing
    some trees/dancing
    most of the trees/dancing
    enough trees/dancing
    a lot of trees/dancing
    lots of trees/dancing
    plenty of trees/dancing
    a lack of trees/dancing

在正式學術文章的寫作中，使用 many 和 much 通常優於 a lot of, lots of 和 plenty of 等片語。

"a little" 和 "little" (用在不可數名詞)之間以及"a few" 和 "few" (用在可數名詞) 之間有很大的不同。如果我說 "Tashonda has a little experience in management." 這意思是說雖然 Tashonda 沒有專家級的經驗，但她還是有些經驗，而該些經驗可能已足夠我們的要求。如果我說 "Tashonda has little experience in management." 這意思是說 Tashonda 沒有足夠的經驗。如果我說 "Charlie owns a few books on Latin American literature." 這意思是說 Charlie 有一些書 -- 不是很多書，但可能已足供我們參考。如果我說 "Charlie owns few books on Latin American literature." 這意思是說他的書不夠我們做參考，我們最好上圖書館。

除非與 of 連用，否則 "much" 這個量詞都用在疑問句和否定句：

    * Much of the snow has already melted.
    * How much snow fell yesterday?
    * Not much.

注意："most of the" 這個量詞在修飾特定名詞時必須包括定冠詞 the，不管該名詞可數或不可數："most of the instructors at this college have a doctorate"; "most of the water has evaporated." 然而，若為普通複數名詞，亦即不是指特定的實體，那麼 "of the" 被省略：

    * Most colleges have their own admissions policy.
    * Most students apply to several colleges.

不定冠詞有時跟量詞 many 連用，因而形成一種將複數量詞與單數名詞結合在一起的情況 (後面接單數動詞)：

    * Many a young man has fallen in love with her golden hair.
    * Many an apple has fallen by October.

這種結構帶有一點文學味道 (有些人則說是一種索然、陳腐的味道)，所以若不能完全不用，最好也應少用。