Spanish: An Essential Grammar

Uno intenta ayudarles, pero no nos lo agradecen.

One tries to help them, but they do not thank us for it.

Mucho, poco

These can be used as adjectives and pronouns (variable in number and

gender) or as adverbs (invariable).

Used as adjectives and pronouns

As an adjective or pronoun, mucho/a/os/asmeans ‘much’, ‘many’, ‘great’,

‘a lot (of)’. Poco/a/os/asmeans ‘few’, ‘little’:

Tengo pocos libros. I have few books.

Habla con mucha/poca emoción. He speaks with great/little

feeling.

Muchoand pococan also be used as invariable neuter pronouns:

Tengo mucho/poco que hacer. I have a lot/little to do.

Not infrequently mucho/aand poco/aconvey the sense of ‘too much’ and

‘too little’:

Esto es mucha/poca comida para él.

This is too much/too little food for him.

Used as adverbs

As an adverb muchomeans ‘much’, ‘a lot’. Pocomeans ‘little’, but can also

be used to negate an adjective (sometimes corresponding to the English

prefix ‘un-’):

Lee mucho. She reads a lot.

Esta tierra es poco fértil. This land is not fertile.

poco interesante/probable uninteresting/unlikely

Preceded by the indefinite article, pocomeans ‘a little’:

un poco raro a bit strange

¿Quieres un poco de pan? Do you want a little bread?

9.5.2

9.5.1

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Mucho, poco

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