I'm not a native speaker, which of these is grammatically correct?
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"How many amounts of information?"
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"How many pieces of information?"
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"How many information?"
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"How much information?"
I think the 2nd and 4th ones are correct and the others aren't, am I correct?
I do understand that many is used with countable nouns and much is used to uncountable nouns.
And I also understand that the word "information" is an uncoutable noun in British English.
What confuses me is an exercise for school:
How much information do you need? (use how many)
One of my friends said it'd be like the first example but I don't think so.
Best Answer
Think of information as if it were honey, the sweet substance bees produce, not the synonym for "nice person" or "sweetheart". Also think of it in its flowing state, not crystallized.
How many honey does the recipe call for? ungrammatical
How much honey does the recipe call for? grammatical
How many informations on your web browsing habits does Google collect? ungrammatical
How much information on your web browsing habits does Google collect? grammatical
An amount is an unspecified quantity. For that reason we cannot ask How many amounts...? because nobody knows the size of the amount. And when you add amounts together, they simply become a larger amount. An amount has no size until it is modified, for example "a small amount" or "a large amount", and even then the size is relative and vague.