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Five-minute Spanish Lessons - Lesson 31.Lots and lots - muchísimos.In another lesson I offer a study of the use of "a little" ("un poco") so this time we're going to look at large quantities: "a lot" / "mucho". English has more than one word for this. In British English we can say: Hay mucha gente en el centro hoy. (note agreement of "mucha" with feminine "gente") Tenemos mucho dinero. (note agreement of "mucho") Learners of Spanish can see that normally there is agreement in gender and number with this word: mucho helado. a lot of ice-cream. mucha nata. lots of cream. muchos coches. lots of cars. muchas buenas intenciones. a lot of good intentions. In colloquial Spanish "muchísimo" translates expressions like "very much"; "a great deal", etc. Muchísimas gracias. Me siento muchísimo mejor hoy. English has several colloquial words meaning "a lot of" eg: "stacks of"; "heaps of"; "loads of"; "tons of" or "really + verb". In Spanish, there are words such as: "un montón"; and "cantidad", the latter used at the end of a phrase: El profe nos ha mandado un montón de deberes. Me gustan estas botas cantidad. Tengo montones. Another, sometimes childish expression, is "lots and lots", note a possible Spanish translation: ¡Tengo muchos, pero muchísimos amigos! In British English especially, "many" and "much" are normally reserved for the negative and the interrogative, though note that "a lot" but NOT usually "lots" is also possible: No nos queda mucha gasolina. No tienes mucha elección. ¿Tiene muchos problemas? ("problemas" is masculine) ¿Hay mucha contaminación en Los Ángeles? Sí, hay mucha. The translation of "how much?" is "¿cuánto?" and "how many?", "¿cuántos?": ¿Cuánto cuesta? ¿Cuántos me puedes dejar? Finally, note that in both British and US English we use many / much in affirmative sentences especially when in formal language and literature: Hace muchos años... Y todos disfrutaron muchísimo.
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