Much/a lot of

Question

Why we use too much | much in these sentences, not a lot of. Both can be understood as "a lot." And in both sentences there is no noun where it would be possible to determine the computability.

I smoke ___.

When you have got flu you shouldn't eat ___.

GPY · Accepted Answer

"a lot of" has to be followed by a noun, e.g. "a lot of money". By contrast, "a lot" can be adverbial, describing the way in which something is done. This is why "I smoke a lot" works, but "I smoke a lot of" does not work (by itself). "I smoke a lot of weed", for example, would be correct.

"a lot" can al

"a lot" can also be a noun if the "of ~" part is implied. E.g. in "I ate a lot last night", it is probably understood to mean "a lot of food".

"too much" can come before a noun and also be adverbial. E.g. you can say "too much money" and also "I smoke too much". The same is true of "much" by itself, but this is mostly confined to negative sentences and questions. For example, we say "I don't smoke much" but not "I smoke much".

red train 520to determine the computability.

Do you mean countability?

Much/a lot of

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