Business

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Business
Message de babeth54 posté le 04-10-2010 à 22:16:23 (S | E | F)
Good evening

Could you tell me why we use so much instead of so many in this sentence :
we had so much new business that we needed extra staff.

Thank you
Elisabeth

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Modifié par lucile83 le 04-10-2010 22:22

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Réponse: Business de brettdallen, postée le 04-10-2010 à 22:23:01 (S | E)
Hello,
We use "so much" because "business", here, is an uncountable noun. Its meaning is close to "commerce"/"work". Uncountable nouns are followed by singular and
"Much" is followed by uncountable nouns.
You've got to know that "business" can also be countable, for example when it means "a commercial enterprise", then "many" would be correct with the plural.
Hope it's clearer now.
Bye !

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Réponse: Business de may, postée le 06-10-2010 à 03:12:20 (S | E)
Bonsoir,

we had so much new business that we needed extra staff.

To follow up Brettdallen's explanation, the sentence sounds much better like:

We had so much business that we would (definitely) need extra staff.

Here, the adjective new makes the meaning of the sentence more confused (between work (uncountable) and enterprise (countable))

N'est-ce pas?

Bonne nuit

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Réponse: Business de babeth54, postée le 08-10-2010 à 23:18:59 (S | E)
Thank you for your explanations; It is clearer;
Have a good night

Elisabeth

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