Many

We usemanyto refer to a large number of something countable. We most commonly use it in questions and in negative sentences:

Were theremanychildren at the party?

Idon’thavemanyrelatives. We’re a small family.

We can usemanywithnot, meaning‘few’:

Notmanypeople realise that the mathematical notion of ‘zero’ is a relatively recent invention.

We don’t normally usemanyalone before a noun in an affirmative statement:

There werea lot ofpeople at the swimming pool this morning.

Not:There were many people…

However, we can sometimes usemany (of) instead ofa lot oforlots ofin rather formal contexts in affirmative statements:

Manypoliticians have suffered at the hands of the popular press.(formal)

Many ofhis friends and colleagues were shocked upon hearing of his sudden death.(formal)

We often usemanyin formal situations in affirmative statements when the noun is followed by a relative clause (acting as a postmodifier):

There aremanyelderly people who have never touched a computer in their lives.

We can modifymanywithvery, a greatorso:

Very manypeople have complained about the situation.

There werea great manyquestions which were left unanswered at the end of the investigation.

Why doso manypeople watch reality TV shows?

We can use the expressionas many asto talk about a high number that is surprising or shocking:

As many as5,000 people are believed to have died in the earthquake.

We can use the expressionin as manyto mean ‘in the same number of’:

He doesn’t seem to be very lucky in love. He’s had three girlfriendsin as manymonths.(He’s had three girlfriends in three months.)