• Deutsch (German)
  • English
  • Español (Spanish, Mexico)
  • Français (French)
  • Italiano
  • Português (Portuguese, Portugal)

Other quantifiers, percentages and fractions

Introduction

Image      Are there enough pens for everyone?    Yes, don't worry - we have plenty. 

Quantifier

Definition and Use

With countable nouns

With uncountable nouns

 

A couple of

 

Two things or people or an imprecise very small number

 

 

It happened a couple of days ago.

 

Image

 

Several

 

An imprecise number - more than a couple or a few

 

 

It happened several days ago.

 

Image

 

Enough

 

All that is needed

 

We have enough cups.

 

We don't have enough coffee.

 

 

Plenty of

 

More than is needed Often used to reassure

 

 

We have plenty of glasses.

 

We have plenty of wine.

 

Most

 

Almost all

 

Most people like relaxing at the weekend.

 

 

Most furniture is made in factories.

 

A/the majority of

 

 

Almost all or a greater number

 

[often used with 'vast' as an intensifier]

 

 

The vast majority of our customers prefer weekend deliveries.

 

 

[sometimes heard but not considered correct in standard English]

 

A number of 

 

An imprecise number - similar to several or some

 

A number of people have replied to the invitation.

 

Image

 

A good/great deal of

 

A lot of

 

Image

 

We still have a great deal of work to do.

 

 

Loads of

 

 

A lot of

[informal and conversational]

 

 

Loads of people are coming to the seminar.

 

I've got loads of work to do - I don't know if I'll finish it today.


Most

 

When most is used for superlatives, it has 'the' in front of it but not when it is a quantifier:

      The most people like chocolate. Image    Most people like chocolate. Image


With nouns

We do not need to use nouns with if we know who/what we are talking about. For example:

 

We need more coffee - we don't have enough for everyone.

Some people don't mind working at the weekend but most prefer not to.

We sent invitations to all our major customers but only a couple have replied.


'Enough'

As a quantifier, we use enough before nouns:

 

We have enough tea.

We don't have enough coffee.

Do we have enough sugar?

 

But when it is an adverb of degree, we use it  after verbs, adjectives and other adverbs:

           

I don't sleep enough.

He doesn't work fast enough.

This room isn't big enough.


Subject verb agreement

This depends on whether the noun is countable or uncountable.

 

 

Singular verb

Plural verb

 

A couple of

 

Image

 

A couple of my clients are coming for lunch.

 

 

Several

 

Image

 

Several of our clients are based in Canada.

 

 

Enough

 

Enough information was provided.

 

Enough people have responded - we can book the venue for the seminar now.

 

 

Plenty of

 

Plenty of time was given to complete the job.

 

 

Plenty of experts are going to be there to give advice.

 

Most

 

Most French wine is named by region rather than grape.

 

 

Most of my friends go skiing in February.

 

A/The majority of

 

 

The majority of the population speaks Spanish.

[with countable nouns considered as a unit or collection of people or things.]

 

 

A majority of the people interviewed are happy with their job.

 

A number of

 

 

Image

 

A number of problems were identified.

 

 

 


With 'of'

We can use 'of' with several, enough and most when we are referring to a more specific quantity or amount.

 

Note that:

 

1.     We can't use 'of' + noun. We need to use 'the', a demonstrative, a pronoun or a possessive adjective: For example:

 

Most of people I know don't speak a foreign language. Image   I enjoy my job most of time. Image

 

Most of the people I know don't speak a foreign language.

Several of my friends live near me.

We have enough of this wine for ten people.

I enjoyed most of it.

 

2.   'plenty' and 'a couple' always need 'of' when they are used with nouns:

 

Plenty of food will be provided.     A couple of files are missing. 

 

Percentages and fractions

Image  About 25% of our subsidiaries are in Asia. The other three quarters are in Europe.

We use percentages to talk about amounts and changes in amounts.

We can write 75% or 75 per cent or 75 percent.


Subject-verb agreement

 

Singular verb

Plural verb

 

A singular countable noun

 

75% of this report is useless.

 

 

 

A plural countable noun

 

 

75% of these reports are useless.

 

 

An uncountable noun

 

75% of this information is useful.

 

 

 

A countable noun that can be considered as a unit or collection of people or things

 

66% of the population has voted in the election.

 

50% of the team is involved in the project.

 

34% of the population haven't voted in the election.

 

50% of the team are involved in the project. 


 Changes

We use these expressions:

 

The profits rose by 15% in 2012.

There was a 15% drop in the number of recruits.

The figures shot up from 20% to 60% last month.

There was an increase of 22%.



Fractions


We use fractions to talk about parts of whole amounts and quantities. Here are some examples and how to say them:

 

⅛

an eighth   or  one eighth

⅕

a fifth         or  one fifth

¼

a quarter    or  one quarter

⅓

a  third      or  one third

½

a half         or  one half

⅞

seven eighths

⅗

three fifths

¾

three quarters

⅔

two thirds

1½

one and a half

2¼

two and a quarter

5⅔

five and two thirds

 

 

Note that we usually say 'a' with fractions, although 'one' is also possible.

 

A third of them voted against the proposal.

As many as one third of them voted against the proposal.


Subject-verb agreement

 

Singular verb

Plural verb

 

A singular countable noun

 

¾ of this report is useless.

 

 

 

A plural countable noun

 

 

¾ of these reports are useless.

 

 

An uncountable noun

 

½ of this information is useful.

 

 

 

A countable noun that can be considered as a unit or collection of people or things

 

⅔ of the population has voted in the election.

 

⅓  of the team is in Europe.

 

 

⅔ of the population hasn't voted in the election.

 

⅓ of the team are in Asia.

 

We use 'of' with most fractions, usually with an article, a demonstrative, a pronoun or a possessive adjective. 

 

A quarter of the/our/these employees take a holiday in February.

A quarter of them take a holiday in February.

A quarter of an hour is all I need to finish this.

 

Note that 'of', 'a,' and 'the' aren't necessary with half.  

Half (of) our employees take a three week holiday in the summer.


Intensifiers

 

 

Percentages

Fractions

 

'more than'

 

 

'fewer/less than'

 

 

More than 50% of the work is finished.

 

Less than 40% of my working day is spent in the office.

 

 

More than half the work is finished.

 

Fewer than a fifth of the participants were from Europe.

 

 

'(well) over'

'(just/a little) over'

 

The profits increased by well over 20%.

 

 

 

I've contacted over a quarter of the people on the list.

 

'almost' 

'nearly' 'virtually'

 

 

Almost 75% of the items are ready for dispatch.

 

I've eaten nearly three quarters of the pizza.

 

'about' ‛around'

'approximately'

'roughly'

 

 

We recruit around 20% of our engineers from abroad.

 

Approximately one third of all our new recruits are women.

 

'at least'

 

[a minimum - maybe more]

 

 

His salary is at least 20% higher than mine.

 

We need at least two thirds of the team to be here tomorrow.

 

'up to'

 

[not more than]

 

 

We can expect a decrease of up to 10%.

 

Up to half of all the world's food is wasted.

 

'(well) under'

'(just/a little) under'

 

The figures remained stable at a little under 30%.

 

 

Under a fifth of them disagreed.