Talking about problems and solutions with quantifiers

Talking about problems and solutions with quantifiers
Choose one of the quantifiers on the right below and use it to explain a problem, listen to
your partner’s suggestion (perhaps also using words from below), and react to it.

Suggested topics

Suggested quantifiers for

problems (and solutions)

 Complaints
 Co-workers (= colleagues)
 English at work
 Getting a promotion
 Improving your English
 Information
 Meeting people
 Meetings
 Negotiations
 Networking
 Office (furniture, building, space, local area, etc)
 Overtime
 Paperwork
 Sales
 Staffing/ HR
 Finance/ Money
 Telephoning
 Travel
 Work
 Work-life balance

 a couple of
 (only) a few
 (only) a little
 a lot of
 few
 little
 lots of/ many
 no
 not any
 not enough
 not many
 not much
 quite a lot
 so many
 so much
 some
 too few
 too little
 (much/ far/ slightly) too many
 (much/ far/ slightly) too much

Which of the quantifiers above are (always or usually) negative?

What are the differences between these quantifiers?
-

many/ so many

-

so many/ too many

-

too many/ too much

-

too many/ much too many

-

not many/ not enough

-

a few/ few

-

a little/ little

Written by Alex Case for UsingEnglish.com © 2021