🧮 Grammar B2-13: Advanced quantifiers
At B2 a quantity word does two jobs at once: it says how much, and it says how the writer feels about how much. This material builds the whole topic around that second job. It opens with the flagship contrast — a few people came versus few people came, the same number with two different arguments attached — and extends it to a little and little. It then maps the full register ladder from loads of and tons of, through plenty of and quite a few, up to a great deal of, a considerable number of, numerous and the majority of, showing which rung belongs in a text message and which in a committee report. Along the way it settles the countability split (deal and amount measure, number and many count), the agreement trap that catches strong writers (a number of students are versus the number of students is), the near-zero family (hardly any, barely any, scarcely any, no evidence whatsoever) and the all / whole choice that makes all the day impossible. Six exercise blocks, a tappable evaluation report and five traps that survive into C1.
Lesson Plan
- A quantity word says how much and how the writer feels about it
- The register ladder in one strip: loads of → plenty of → a great deal of
- A scale from none at all to the vast majority, colour-coded by feeling
Key Vocabulary
Grammar Points
- a few / few and a little / little: the article decides whether the amount is reported or complained about
- quite a few and quite a lot of mean more than expected, not a small number
- The register ladder from loads of to a considerable number of, and countable versus uncountable partners
- Agreement: a number of + plural verb, the number of + singular verb, the majority of + plural group + plural verb
- The near-zero family takes a positive verb: hardly any, barely any, no … whatsoever
- all day / the whole day / all the reports — and why all the day does not exist
