76. Many/much and plenty of/a lot of 

The expressions a lot of, plenty of and a great deal of are preferred in affirmative clauses. 

In questions and negatives, we usually use much or many. 

Compare: 

• I have a lot of work to do. (NOT I have much work to do.)

 • Do you have much work to do? (More natural than ‘Do you have a lot of work to do?’) 

• No, I don’t have much work to do. (More natural than ‘No, I don’t have a lot of work to do’) 

• Plenty of people want to buy cars. 

• Are there many people who want cars? 

• Yes, but there aren’t many people who can afford them. (NOT There aren’t plenty of people who can afford them.)

 Many is occasionally used in the affirmative, but much is almost never used in that way. 

The expressions a lot of, plenty of and a great deal of are almost never used in the negative, but they are occasionally used in questions.