'Few', 'A few', 'Many' etc!

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

Hi

As a rough guess, could you please tell me ‘how many’ by writing down the number in front of each sentence, i.e, 2 or 6 etc?

1- There were few tables in the room.
2- There were a few tables in the room.
3- There were a good few tables in the room.
4- There were quite a fewtables in the room.
5- There were several tables in the room.
6- There were many tables in the room.
7- There were a good many tables in the room.
8- There were a whole lot tables in the room.
9- There were lotstables in the room.

Thanks in advance

Tom

2

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C’mon, Tom-- context! Is this a restaurant? A boardroom? A living room?
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3

Dear MM

Do the (meanings of )the given words depend on the places they are in? :shock:

1- few
2-a few tables
3-a good few tables
4-quite a few
5-several
6- many
7- a good many

Tom

4

Hi Tom,

You asked:

how many these referred to. That is an impossible question. How can you quantify when you don’t know what the situation is?

I must correct the last two: a whole lot of / lots of tables

Alan

5

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Of course they do, Tom-- quite a few tables in a restaurant = 60; quite a few tables in my living room = 3.
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6

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I agree with the gents, Tom. It depends very much on the context (and to some extent, also on personal opinion).
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