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There was such much traffic? Hi! I'm teaching the use of "so" and "such" and I've got a doubt with the following senteces: 1. Sorry I'm late - There was so much traffic 2. Sorry I'm late - There was such a lot of traffic 3. Sorry I'm late - There was such much traffic Sentences 1 and 2 are correct, but why isn't sentence 3 also correct? Thanks for your time and help in advanced! |
Re: There was such much traffic? Thanks for your quick reply Susan53. I understand your explanation. However, we can use such with and adjective and a noun e.g. Maybe this isn't such a good idea as I thought. If much and many are quantifying adjectives, then I still don't understand why it's not correct the following sentence: There was such much traffic I know this sentence doesn't sound right but I'd like to know the gramatical reason if there is one. |
Re: There was such much traffic? I deleted the first answer because it clearly confused you. Trying again... So is an intensifier which is used before adjectives, adverbs and quantifiers. For example : - so + adjective : I've never been so surprised! - so + adverb : The time went so quickly! - so + quantifier : I enjoyed it so much! Such is used with noun phrases - which may contain a pre-modifying adjective, but this is grammatically incidental. It's not the head of the phrase and could be omitted: I've never seen such (bad) behaviour! Such cannot be used with quantifiers. Even when the quantifier premodifies the noun, so must be used : I've never seen so much traffic. He has so many friends. / We've got so little time.. On the other hand the expression "a lot" (even though it functions in the same way as a quantifier) is grammatically a noun phrase, literally meaning a "set" or "group". So it is used with such: There was such a lot of traffic / He has such a lot of friends. / We enjoyed it such a lot. I hope that's clearer. . |
Re: There was such much traffic? Thank you! Your explanation is perfectly clear! :) |
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