The above phrases sound almost alike, don't they? However there are some differences in how to use them. Think NOUNs (name words.) One would say "I need a lot of apples." or one could say "I need lots of apples." Lots of, and a lot of describe nouns. However if you use it with a VERB (generally an action word) one would say, "He ran a lot." You would not say he ran lots of, or he ran a lot of.
Remember, these phrases are mainly used in informal English . "Lots of" is probably the most informal of the three expressions. As a writer, I might use a lot, or a lot of, but I would seldom use lots of, particularly in an academic paper. It is better English to use "many" or "a great deal" in my opinion, but in some cases "a lot of" flows better and sounds less formal. To say I need a great deal of bread may seem too grand. I need a lot of bread rolls more easily off the tongue. In English it all depends to whom one is speaking. Sometimes we are more formal than others. Sue…
2 comments:
Thanks "a lot", Sue I woke up early morning and the first thing I saw was a post from you. What a wonderful early morning gift!
Dear Sue,
I am so sorry because I haven’t written until now. I am in exams. I had 1 exam (NDT none … test) in 2 last Tuesday and I had 3 exams last week so I am very busy in these weeks. I promise to write letters. It’s time we had many letters.
I enjoyed your post about Black English when we read it in our class.
In all of world people have many dialects. I feel the difference dialects when I see a film in which there are blacks. Blacks speak very fast and usually I cannot understand what they say but, I saw a news reader that was a black woman. She spoke very very well and I could understand some of what she read.
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