Should one say "too many refried beans", or "too much refried beans"?
Should one say "too many refried beans", or "too much refried beans"?
"Too many" kinda sounds right to my ear because beans is plural, but the second logically seems right because its served by volume and is not 'countable' as ordinary (non-destroyed) beans might be.
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Since the word "beans" is plural, and countable, it's "many".
"Many" is for things that are countable, "much" is for things that aren't. e.g. Water - you'd say "too much water" but you wouldn't say "too much cups of water" but "too many cups of water".
Though "refried beans" is a thing on its own, I could go either way. Like if you were spooning beans onto my plate, I may say "too much!".
How's that for a confident, clear answer? 😆
Try to count a can of refried beans and get back to me with a result.
One can.
Done.
The plural on the word takes precedence over the actual countability of the thing. Unless you want to start calling it a can of "refried bean"
Lol, I know, right?
On my plate it's a volumetric thing, so a single unit.
But it is "beans" (plural) in a can.
A technically correct alternative would be to drop that plural "s" but forego any uncountable noun that describes the form the beans take: "I had too much refried bean today."
In the wrong context it might evoke the idea of one enormous bean that the speaker was unable to finish, but like I say, technically correct.
So you'd normally say "that's too much!" in which case the subject "that" is plural and countable so therefore "much" would be correct.
Otherwise you should say "you have given me too many refried beans!" since the beans are volumetric and not countable entities.
Well clarified!
TI(R)L. Today I Re-Learned.
Thanks for this. I have basic English knowledge and this helps me
Lol, I like the new acronym
I wouldn’t consider beans countable, and would put it in the same category as rice or noodles. So I’d say “too much” is the correct term.
One noodle/ a bowl of noodles. Or one bean, a bowl of beans.
But you wouldn't say: one rice. You'd say one grain of rice. So it's like rice is automatically a mass of many individual bits/grains of rice. Beans are not that way, they're countable.
Not after they've been refried.
Consider a potato and mashed potatoes.
Yes. There are countable and non-countable nouns and thems the rules.