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quantifier

Kili

Member
Turkish-Ä°ZMÄ°R
------- has been said as to why the country should join Europian Community.

A) A lot
B) Few
C) Whole
D) Plenty
E) Less


"A" and "D" seem to be correct. What do you think? To my knowledge both quantifiers can be used as the subject of the sentence if the meaning is clear.
------- has been said as to why the country should join Europian Community.

A) A lot
B) Few
C) Whole
D) Plenty
E) Less


"A" and "D" seem to be correct. What do you think? To my knowledge both quantifiers can be used as the subject of the sentence if the meaning is clear.
A, D and E are all acceptable English utterances. I agree that "plenty" is fairly colloquial, but there is not enough context to rule it out in my opinion - I could well imagine someone saying such a sentence in a pub to their friend. But yes - if the context were a newspaper, for example, I agree it would be less likely.
I agree that A), D), and E) are all acceptable. Of the three choices, E) has the most formal sound to it. Both "A lot" and "plenty" are less formal than "less", "more", or "much" in the same slot, in my opinion.

Just a note... the sentence itself has a few mistakes:

....has been said as to why the country should join the European Community.
Less than what? A) and D) are the only ones that stand alone for me.
Very true, James. The original poster did not rule out a previous sentence such as:

"PLENTY has been said about why the country should ban trans fats."

In which case, E) would fit quite well as a following sentence.
"Much" or "little" could stand alone and would avoid the excessively informal "plenty" or "a lot".
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