Much v/s Many

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bubbliiiiiiii: Legendary Member; Posts: 979; Joined: Tue Apr 14, 2009 1:38 amFollowed by: 12 members; Location: Hyderabad, India; Thanked: 49 times; GMAT Score:700

by bubbliiiiiiii » Tue Apr 19, 2011 8:12 am

However, much United states voters agree that ...

However, many United states voters agree that ...

Guys, which one is more appropriate.

[spoiler]IMO many; OA contains much[/spoiler]

Regards,

Pranay

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Tue Apr 19, 2011 8:12 am

pemdas: Legendary Member; Posts: 1084; Joined: Fri Apr 15, 2011 2:33 pmFollowed by: 21 members; Thanked: 158 times

by pemdas » Tue Apr 19, 2011 8:26 am

since 'United states' functions as the adjective expressed by noun phrase and 'voters' is the actual noun which needs to be used in plural we may count 'many' as correct (to me)

However, 'United states' will cause confusion for this expression and i would suggest paraphrasing 'many voters of the United States'

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atulmangal: Legendary Member; Posts: 1112; Joined: Sat Feb 26, 2011 11:16 amFollowed by: 49 members; Thanked: 77 times

by atulmangal » Tue Apr 19, 2011 11:01 pm

bubbliiiiiiii wrote:However, much United states voters agree that ...

However, many United states voters agree that ...

Guys, which one is more appropriate.

[spoiler]IMO many; OA contains much[/spoiler]

Can u please post the source...

Much ----> for Non-countable
Many ----> for countable

Please post the whole sentence, may be the intended meaning is to refer quantity...for ex:--- for population we use MUCH not MANY....here also its possible a relative measure is given in the sentence in terms of quantity only hence used MUCH...interesting question...

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jaymw: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 144; Joined: Sun Aug 29, 2010 9:17 amFollowed by: 4 members; Thanked: 40 times; GMAT Score:760

by jaymw » Tue Apr 19, 2011 11:11 pm

bubbliiiiiiii wrote:
However, much United states voters agree that ...

However, many United states voters agree that ...

Guys, which one is more appropriate.

IMO many; OA contains much

bubbliiiiiii, I am fairly certain that you took this fragment out of its proper context. Are sure that there were commas? And can you please post the whole question?

"Much" can definitely be correct here. Sample sentence: However much people agree that Vodka is bad for your health, I still don't believe it. In this sentence the word "much" modifies the verb "agree", just as in "I very much agree with you".

In SC problems, it is always a good idea to first check what the intended meaning of the sentence is before looking at the answer choices.

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bubbliiiiiiii: Legendary Member; Posts: 979; Joined: Tue Apr 14, 2009 1:38 amFollowed by: 12 members; Location: Hyderabad, India; Thanked: 49 times; GMAT Score:700

by bubbliiiiiiii » Wed Apr 20, 2011 12:42 am

Hi All,

I have googled for this and found the question to be discussed here:

https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/how ... t3375.html

@jaymw: Great learning. Firstly I have to check comma usage with the hard copy that contains this question. But can you explain how comma can make a difference?

Is it that if comma is present, much tries to modify voters ?
Is it that if comma is NOT present, much tries to modify agree?

Regards,

Pranay

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jaymw: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 144; Joined: Sun Aug 29, 2010 9:17 amFollowed by: 4 members; Thanked: 40 times; GMAT Score:760

by jaymw » Wed Apr 20, 2011 1:12 am

bubbliiiiiii, usually the GMAT does not expect you to be a comma-expert, however, in this sentence one little comma really does make all the difference.

WITH this comma, the sentence containing much CANNOT be correct. This is because "voters" is a countable plural noun and thus requires "many". The comma in this case would break the connection between "however" and "much". These two words actually belong together! "However much" is very close in meaning to "despite".

WITHOUT the comma, as in the correct version of the question, there are two possibilities for the sentence to end.

"However much US voters may agree, there is a waste..." -> means despite their strong agreement something happens.

"However many US voters may agree, there is a waste..." -> means despite the number of US voters who agree, something happens.

Both of these sentence are grammatically correct. BUT the second one does not even show up in the answer choices. All answer choices except for E suggest that it is the degree of agreement that is under discussion here, and NOT the number of people who agree.

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