markhu26
in "how much would you like" can "how much" ask the amount of countable nous like sausages? A:I'd like some sausages.How much are they? B:Thirty yuan a kilo. How much would you like A;Half a kilo In B's answer, why don't use how many would you like, since it's asking about the strawberries?
Apr 2, 2015 8:57 AM
Answers · 4
2
Setting aside the added confusion about sausages and strawberries (!), I can understand why you are perplexed by this, but it is logical if you think about it. It's all to do with the answer you are expecting. If a stallholder in a market is selling melons or pineapples, it would be normal to say 'How many do you want?' , because the expected answer is a quantity - one melon or two pineapples, for example. But if it's something grammatically countable (like strawberries) but so small that you wouldn't count them singly, you wouldn't say 'How many do you want?' , because you would hardly expect the customer to say 'I'd like 147 strawberries, please' ! I agree that 'How much..?' does sound a little odd when you start to analyse it grammatically, but it's still better than 'How many?' 'How much..?' leads on more naturally to the expected answer 'Half a kilo'. Alternatively, you could say 'How many kilos..?' or 'How many grammes would you like?'.
April 2, 2015
Because of not quantity, but weight measure.
April 2, 2015
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