English Grammar: Quantifiers, Articles, Gerunds, and Infinitives

5A. Quantifiers

Large

A lot of money (positive sentences)

She spends a lot (no noun)

They have much money (uncountable)

They have many books (countable)

Don't run. We have plenty of time (abundant)

Small

They have a little time > They have very little time

They have a few problems > They have very few problems

Zero

There isn't any room (negative)

There is no room (positive)

None (short answers)

More/Less Than You Need

This city is too big (adjective)

There's too much money (uncountable noun)

There are too many tourists (plural countable nouns)

There aren't enough parks (before noun)

This is frequent enough (after adjective)

5B. Articles

A/An

1. I saw an old man with a dog (first time you mention this)
2. When you say what somebody/something does/is:
   It's a nice house / She's a lawyer.
3. Exclamatives with "What...!": What an awful day!
4. Expressions like: 3 times a week

The

1. Talk about something mentioned: ...a dog...the dog...
2. Only one of something: The moon...
3. Specific thing: Open the door.
4. Places in a town: ...to the cinema
5. Superlatives: ...the best thing...

Nothing

1. Women talk more than men (plural and uncountable nouns)
2. She's not at home today (home/work/school/church after at/to/from)
3. I never have breakfast on Sunday (before meals, days, and months)
4. See you next Friday (before next/last + days, week, etc.)

5C. Gerunds and Infinitives

Gerund (V+ing)

1. After prepositions and phrasal verbs (give up, go on):
   I'm good at remembering names
2. Subject of a sentence: Eating out is quite cheap here
3. Some verbs (enjoy, hate, finish, like, love, mind, practice, spend, stop, suggest):
   I don't mind getting up early

Infinitive (+to)

1. After adjectives: My flat is easy to find
2. To express a reason or purpose:
   He's saving money to buy a new car
3. After some verbs (can't afford, agree, decide, expect, forget, help, hope, learn, need, offer, plan, pretend, promise, refuse, remember, seem, try, want, would like):
   She's never learned to drive

Infinitive (Without To)

1. After some modal and auxiliary verbs:
   I can't drive. We must hurry.
2. After make and let: My parents don't let me go out