Search from various English teachers...
Simon White (IELTS)
Professional TeacherIs this correct? Shouldn’t it be MANY GOOD WAYS without the article? 🤔
Jan 4, 2025 11:06 AM
Answers · 3
2
No. It's correct. It's a fairly common phrase (albeit probably less than it was). 'A great many' exists also
Jan 4, 2025 5:07 PM
In "many good ways", it is the *ways* that are good.
In "a good many ways", it is the *many* that is good. To justify this grammatically requires A Great Muchness of effort. Nonetheless, I will try. I interpret "good" as an adjective that modifies the noun "many", as in the sentence "I have a good many". I interpret "ways" as a sort of dative case, as in Old English, so that "ways" really means "of ways". To be strictly correct, you would write "a good many of ways".
Where I live, "a good many" is a common expression used in the same ways that "many" is used:
"I have many"; "I have a good many"
"There are many ways"; "There are a good many ways"
I have a question: Why can't we say "a good (or great) much"? For instance,
"We ate a good much of (the) food"
sounds bad (at least to me). However, if we change it just a little bit, it sounds OK:
"We ate a little much of the food"
sounds good to me. I can think of no explanation for this asymmetry.
Jan 4, 2025 10:59 PM
Still haven’t found your answers?
Write down your questions and let the native speakers help you!
Simon White (IELTS)
Language Skills
English, French
Learning Language
French
Articles You May Also Like

Same Word, Different Meaning: American, British, and South African English
9 likes · 7 Comments

How to Sound Confident in English (Even When You’re Nervous)
12 likes · 9 Comments

Marketing Vocabulary and Phrases for Business English Learners
7 likes · 2 Comments
More articles