I hope I can make it clear :) A LOT: I have cried a lot A LOT OF: I have a lot of cats. A lot is more general and a lot OF is used to say you have many things (cat+cat+cat+cat= a lot of cats) VERY is used with adjectives: I am very tall, he is very stupid, we are very short. MANY and MUCH means the same things. Many is used with countable names. Much is used for UNcountable names. Countable names are words of which you can make the plural: car=cars, tree=trees, dog=dogs. Names such as bread, money, information, milk are UNCOUNTABLE (you can't say moneys, informations, milks, breads). a lot of and many/much are interchangeble.