【表达数量】EXPRESSIONS OF QUANTITY

 3. expressionS OF QUANTITY

 

A lot, few, many…

 

I have a lot of money: j’ai beaucoup d’argent (no definite article)(argent is masculine and starts with a vowel)

I have little money: j’ai peu d’argent

I have a lot of bananas: j’ai beaucoup de bananes (banane is feminine)

I want more apples: je veux plus de pommes.

We had little sunshine: nous avons eu peu de soleil (soleil is masculine)

Many children came: beaucoup d’enfants sont venus

However if you are speaking about something specifically:

Many of  the children at this school were ill: beaucoup des enfants de cette école ont été malades.

 

 

 

Sometimes it is subtle:

You can say Je veux du pain, here you mean that you want a slice of bread, and je veux un pain, you want a whole bread.

But you can’t say: je veux de la pomme because you never want a piece of apple but the whole one, so, je veux une pomme !