Hi teachers,
There were many/a lot/lots/a number of clouds in the sky. Are all options correct? Which one is more common?
In Pakistan, you see many/a number/a lot of electricity towers/pylons/posts standing on the side of the roads. Please correct it. Does "electricity towers/pylons/posts need the definite article? Can I also use “beside” in place of “on the side of”?
Many thanks.
@many’ would not take ‘of’:
There were many clouds in the sky.
There were a lot of clouds in the sky.
There were lots of clouds in the sky.
There were a number of clouds in the sky.
They’re all correct. ‘A number of’ has a sense of less clouds than the others indicate. They’re all common.
In the same way:
In Pakistan, you see many electricity towers/pylons/posts standing at the side of the roads.
In Pakistan, you see a number of electricity towers/pylons/posts standing at the side of the roads.
In Pakistan, you see a lot of electricity towers/pylons/posts standing at the side of the roads.
‘Beside’ would be okay there.
You don’t need the article, but towers/pylons are different things to posts for me, and you’ll notice that I’d prefer ‘at the side’ to ‘on the side’ though both are acceptable in this context.
tower/pylon 
post 
Thank you very very very much for the pictures to make it more easy for me. You are great. Madam BN
Actually, it made it easier for me. 
Using a picture made the differences far simpler to explain.