Quantifiers Examples and Exercises

Quantifiers are words or phrases that are used before a noun to show the amount of it that is being considered.

It is often followed by ‘of’, as in a lot of money.

For Example

  • Most children start school at the age of five.
  • We ate some bread and butter.
  • We saw lots of birds.
  • I’ll be back in a couple of minutes.
  • There were hundreds of people at the meeting.
  • They haven’t made many friends here.
  • We’ve got lots of things to do.
  • That’s a lot of money.
  • There weren’t a lot of choices.

Types of Quantifiers in English

There are three types of them:

  1. Quantifiers with Countable Nouns
  2. Quantifiers with Non-Countable Nouns
  3. Quantifiers with Countable and Non-Countable Nouns

Quantifiers with Countable Nouns

These are some quantifiers that we can use with countable nouns.

ManyA few
FewSeveral
A coupleNone of
Thousands ofBoth
NeitherEach

Examples

  • You have several paintings which are worth millions.
  • We have several problems to solve
  • I cut down a couple of trees in the forest
  • She bought a couple of bikes for her nieces.
  • None of the trees was cut down
  • None of my friends came to the party
  • There are many people who want to help you out
  • We have many cats and dogs at home
  • Thousands of people came to the party
  • Thousands of people left their homes after volcano eruption
  • Both trees from your yard were cut down 
  • Both of them came to my office and asked for a raise.
  • Neither one of them made a contribution to the project.
  • Neither one of them brought what they promised

Quantifiers with Non-Countable Nouns

These are some quantifiers that we can use with non- countable nouns.

Not muchA little
LittleA bit of
A good dealA great deal

Examples 

  1. I have a great deal of confidence in this team.
  2. A good deal of attention needs to be devoted to little children.
  3. I need a little bit of help with the programming assignment
  4. There is not much action in this movie
  5. With very little I keep the organization alive.

Quantifiers with Countable and Non-Countable Nouns

These are some quantifiers that we can use with countable and non-countable nouns.

  • all of the trees/
  • some trees/ water
  • most of the trees/
  • enough trees/ information
  • a lot of trees/ information
  • lots of trees/ water
  • plenty of trees/ information
  • a lack of trees/ water

Examples

  • All of the trees were cut down
  • Some information has been leaked to the public
  • Most of the oceans are polluted
  • I don’t have enough money to get until the end of the month
  • There is a lack of water in distant communities
  • We have lots of time.
  • Joe has lots of friends.
  • I can’t go out. I’ve got no money.
  • There was a lot of food but no drinks.

Quantifiers Exercises

These are some exercises to see how much you know about quantifiers

  1. Quantifiers Exercises – A, An and Some
  2. Quantifiers Exercises – A Few and A Little
  3. Quantifiers Exercises – Much and Many
  4. Quantifiers Exercises – Much and Many in Questions
  5. Quantifiers Exercises
  6. Quantifiers Mixed Exercise 1
  7. Quantifiers Mixed Exercise 2
  8. Quantifiers Exercises – some, any, much, many, a lot of, a little, a few

More Information

Check these pages and sites before you go:

  1. Guide to Using Too and Enough
  2. The Past Perfect Continuous Tense
  3. Types of Adverbs in English: Guide & Examples
  4. List of the 50 most Common Prepositions
  5. Reported Speech: Structures and Examples
  6. Types of Clauses with Examples
  7. Verbs Followed by Gerunds
Manuel Campos, English Professor

Manuel Campos

I am Jose Manuel, English professor and creator of EnglishPost.org, a blog whose mission is to share lessons for those who want to learn and improve their English