as much ... as

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Hello,

I’m wondering the meaning of “much” in the sentence 1).

  1. She was as much agitated as him.
  2. She was as agitated as him.

What is the role of “much” here? I think the two sentence basically mean the same. I’m wondering if it is just modifying “agitated”: “She was much agitated like he was.” Please let me know.

Thank you in advance,
sweetpumpkin

2

I look at it as an adverb modifying ‘agitated’ (adjective).

  1. means they were both agitated to a great extent;
  2. simply states they were both agitated.
    “She was much agitated[, just] like he was”-- I would turn it into “Like he, she was much agitated.” More concise and better English for me. Just.
3

Or should it be: “Like him [=similarly to], she was much agitated.”?

4

To me, it looks as shown in parentheses:

  1. She was as much agitated as him. (Signifies the extent of their agitated moods; more than normal)
  2. She was as agitated as him. (Signifies that both were just agitated; in the normal way)