英语中修饰可数名词和不可数名词的限定词的用法

首先要搞清楚，是修饰可数名词或不可数名词，而不是单数或复数名词。可数名词都有复数形式，而不可数名词没有复数形式。

a large deal of、a plenty of和a good supply of 在多数情况下修饰不可数名词，如：a plenty of water, a geat deal of time，不过它们也可以修饰可数名词，如a plenty of men。

a quantity of在多数情况下修饰可数名词，如a quantity of boxes, 不过也可修饰不可数名词，如a quantity of milk。

quantities of与上述的一样

一、只能修饰可数名词的词语有:

many, many a(n), a good / great many, a (great / large) number of, scores of, dozens of等。例如:

Scores of people went there in the first few days after its opening.

开张后的头几天,很多人去了那儿。

I have been there dozens of times.

我已去过那儿很多次了。

There’re a number of students reading English in the classroom.

教室里有许多学生在读英语。

Many a student has(=many students have)visited the Great Wall.(谓语动词用单数)

很多学生都游览过长城。

In winter, a good many animals sleep under the snow.

冬天很多动物在雪下冬眠。

注意: many所修饰的复数名词前若有限定词,many 后面要接of, 表示“……中的很多”。 例如:

A great many(of the) graduates have found jobs.

毕业生中很多人已经找到了工作。

二、只能修饰不可数名词的词语有:

much, a great deal of, a great / large amount of等。例如:

Is there much water in the bucket

桶里有很多水吗

He always has a great amount of work to do.

他总是有很多工作要做。

三、既能修饰可数名词又能修饰不可数名词的词语有:

a lot of, lots of, plenty of (以上三个词语后谓语动词的数依of 后的名词的单复数而定),a great / large quantity of (其后谓语用单数),quantities of (其后谓语用复数)。例如:

There is still lots of snow in the garden.

花园里还有许多雪。

There is plenty of rain here.

这儿的雨水很多。

A great quantity of flowers was placed in the hall.

大厅里放了很多鲜花。

There are large quantities of food in the cupboard.

橱柜里有许多食物。

在所有这些表示“很多”的词语中many, much 是最常用的词,它们既可以用于肯定句,也可以用于疑问句和否定句。例如:

Are there many people in the street

街上有很多人吗

There isn’t much time left.

剩下的时间不多了。

其它的词语都用于肯定句,日常会话中常用lots of, a lot of 或plenty of; 正式文体中常用 a great many, a (large) number of, a great deal of, scores of 或 dozens of 等。但若肯定句中有too, so, as, very或how 等词修饰时,则必须使用 many, much。例如:

The number of the people who lost their homes reached as many as 250,000.

无家可归的人数多达250,000人。

There is too much work to do.

要做的工作太多了。