Hello, this is Alicia from China and you are listening to Everybody ESL.
Welcome to Episode 395 of Everybody ESL, the podcast for everybody who wants to improve their English, practice their English, or just learn more English.
My name is Ben and I have a mini episode for you today where I am going to teach you about one English topic.
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Okay, let's get on with this mini episode.
In this episode, I am going to teach you about an interesting way that we can use the words some and many.
Some and many. We can use these words in a way that might be a little bit surprising to you.
In the right situation, we can use some to mean some people.
And we can use many to mean many people.
In the right context, in the right situation, we can just use some when we want to say some people.
And we can use many when we want to say many people.
And when we do that, our meaning will be clear.
Our meaning will be understood if we do it in the right kind of situation.
Let me give you an example of one of those kinds of situations where people might use these words by themselves to refer to some people or many people.
I could say yesterday at the university, a famous scientist gave a lecture and many came to listen.
Many came to listen.
It might seem a little bit strange, but I can use many when I mean many people.
Many came to listen.
That means many people came to listen.
Why is this the kind of situation where that works where I can use many when I mean many people?
I think the answer is in this example, many really could not mean anything else.
What else could I mean when I say many?
Really, the only thing that I could mean is many people.
Many came to listen.
Many attended the lecture.
It could only mean many people.
Clearly, I'm not trying to say many dogs came to listen.
No, I'm not saying that.
Or many trees came to listen.
No, the only thing I could mean is many people.
And in a situation like that, instead of saying many people, I can just say many.
We can see the same thing with the word some.
I could say some people enjoy scary movies, but some do not.
It will be obvious to any listener that some means some people.
Some people enjoy scary movies, but some do not.
But some people do not.
In this example also, there's really nothing else that some could mean.
This is especially true because at the beginning of the sentence, I said some people.
Some people. And then instead of repeating, but some people, I just said, but some.
And so, because I said some people at the beginning, that makes it even easier to understand when I say some at the end of the sentence.
Some people like scary movies, but some do not.
Again, that means, but some people do not.
This is the maybe strange or surprising way that we can, in the right situation, use some and many to mean some people and many people.
I think sometimes this might sound a bit formal.
Maybe in regular conversations, people don't usually use some and many in this way.
But still, I think you should know about this interesting way of using the words some and many.
This is the end of episode 395 of Everybody ESL.
Remember, if you have questions about English, or if you have comments for me, or if you would like to record an introduction that I can play at the beginning of future episodes, the same way Alicia recorded the introduction you heard at the beginning of this episode, send an email to everybodyesl at gmail .com.
I'll be back soon with a new episode and until then, keep going, keep practicing, and keep learning.
I'll see you soon. Goodbye!
