Many

We use many to refer to a large number of something countable. We most commonly use it in questions and in negative sentences:

• Were there many children at the party?
• I don’t have many relatives. We’re a small family.

We can use many with not, meaning ‘few’:

• Not many people realise that the mathematical notion of ‘zero’ is a relatively recent invention.

We don’t normally use many alone before a noun in an affirmative statement:

• There were a lot of people at the swimming pool this morning.
• Not: There were many people …

However, we can sometimes use many (of) instead of a lot of or lots of in rather formal contexts in affirmative statements:

• Many politicians have suffered at the hands of the popular press. (formal)
• Many of his friends and colleagues were shocked upon hearing of his sudden death. (formal)

We often use many in formal situations in affirmative statements when the noun is followed by a relative clause (acting as a postmodifier):

• There are many elderly people who have never touched a computer in their lives.

We can modify many with very, a great or so:

• Very many people have complained about the situation.
• There were a great many questions which were left unanswered at the end of the investigation.
• Why do so many people watch reality TV shows?

We can use the expression as many as to talk about a high number that is surprising or shocking:

• As many as 5,000 people are believed to have died in the earthquake.

We can use the expression in as many to mean ‘in the same number of’:

• He doesn’t seem to be very lucky in love. He’s had three girlfriends in as many months. (He’s had three girlfriends in three months.)

See also

• Much, many, a lot of, lots of: quantifiers