Learn English – Using “as much […] as”

asphrase-usage

I have a question about using "as much […] as", because I can't figure out how much is supposed to go inside the brackets.

I'm wearing sun screen to cover up as much [surface sun rays might hit] as possible."

I'm covering up with sun screen as much [area sun rays might hit] as possible."

Well, I'm not sure if these examples make sense, but these are what I told my friends this morning. With longer sentences, I'm just not sure how much information I should insert inside the brackets.

I guess phrases like "I'll eat 'as much as' possible" or "I'll clean up 'as much as' I can" are simple enough since I don't really have to put anything inside the brackets.

Best Answer

You can definitely add words in between as much and as. In your simplified examples where nothing goes between them, it's because the words are implied:

I'll eat as much (food) as (it is) possible (to eat).

I'll clean up as much (of the mess) as I can.

There are two problems with your sun screen examples: 1) the phrasing inside the brackets is awkward and doesn't sound right to a native speaker 2) you're using much with countable nouns (sun rays) when you must instead use many.

A proper way to say this using as much as could be:

I'm wearing sun screen to cover up as much of my skin as possible.

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