首先要搞清楚,是修饰可数名词或不可数名词,而不是单数或复数名词。可数名词都有复数形式,而不可数名词没有复数形式。
a
large
deal
of、a
plenty
of和a
good
supply
of
在多数情况下修饰不可数名词,如:a
plenty
of
water,
a
geat
deal
of
time,不过它们也可以修饰可数名词,如a
plenty
of
men。
a
quantity
of在多数情况下修饰可数名词,如a
quantity
of
boxes,
不过也可修饰不可数名词,如a
quantity
of
milk。
quantities
of与上述的一样
一、只能修饰可数名词的词语有:
many,
many
a(n),
a
good
/
great
many,
a
(great
/
large)
number
of,
scores
of,
dozens
of等。例如:
Scores
of
people
went
there
in
the
first
few
days
after
its
opening.
开张后的头几天,很多人去了那儿。
I
have
been
there
dozens
of
times.
我已去过那儿很多次了。
There’re
a
number
of
students
reading
English
in
the
classroom.
教室里有许多学生在读英语。
Many
a
student
has(=many
students
have)visited
the
Great
Wall.(谓语动词用单数)
很多学生都游览过长城。
In
winter,
a
good
many
animals
sleep
under
the
snow.
冬天很多动物在雪下冬眠。
注意:
many所修饰的复数名词前若有限定词,many
后面要接of,
表示“……中的很多”。
例如:
A
great
many(of
the)
graduates
have
found
jobs.
毕业生中很多人已经找到了工作。
二、只能修饰不可数名词的词语有:
much,
a
great
deal
of,
a
great
/
large
amount
of等。例如:
Is
there
much
water
in
the
bucket?
桶里有很多水吗?
He
always
has
a
great
amount
of
work
to
do.
他总是有很多工作要做。
三、既能修饰可数名词又能修饰不可数名词的词语有:
a
lot
of,
lots
of,
plenty
of
(以上三个词语后谓语动词的数依of
后的名词的单复数而定),a
great
/
large
quantity
of
(其后谓语用单数),quantities
of
(其后谓语用复数)。例如:
There
is
still
lots
of
snow
in
the
garden.
花园里还有许多雪。
There
is
plenty
of
rain
here.
这儿的雨水很多。
A
great
quantity
of
flowers
was
placed
in
the
hall.
大厅里放了很多鲜花。
There
are
large
quantities
of
food
in
the
cupboard.
橱柜里有许多食物。
在所有这些表示“很多”的词语中many,
much
是最常用的词,它们既可以用于肯定句,也可以用于疑问句和否定句。例如:
Are
there
many
people
in
the
street?
街上有很多人吗?
There
isn’t
much
time
left.
剩下的时间不多了。
其它的词语都用于肯定句,日常会话中常用lots
of,
a
lot
of
或plenty
of;
正式文体中常用
a
great
many,
a
(large)
number
of,
a
great
deal
of,
scores
of
或
dozens
of
等。但若肯定句中有too,
so,
as,
very或how
等词修饰时,则必须使用
many,
much。例如:
The
number
of
the
people
who
lost
their
homes
reached
as
many
as
250,000.
无家可归的人数多达250,000人。
There
is
too
much
work
to
do.
要做的工作太多了。