phrases, sayings, idioms and expressions at

"a lot of" or "many"

Posted by EE on March 22, 2003

In Reply to: " a lot of" or "many" posted by R. Berg on March 22, 2003

: : I have heard both in England and Canada that "a lot of" is informal English and so should not be used in formal written English. "Many" or "much" should be used instead. Is it true? However, it sounds weird or wrong to write "He has much money." instead of "He has a lot of money." Please help. Thanks.

: Yes, "a lot of" is informal. You can write "He has considerable financial assets" or ". . . great wealth" or ". . . a large fortune." Or "He is wealthy/rich/well off/comfortable." I'm sure there are other ways too.

I have seen ads with "There's lots of..." Isn't this wrong grammatically? Shouldn't it be "There are lots of" instead of "There's lots of"? Thanks.

© 1997 – 2024 Phrases.org.uk. All rights reserved.