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I'm confused about questions with 'Are there' and 'How many'.

First:

I have two questions and two answers during the interview from my textbook.

'Are there many offices?' - There's one head office and there are four other offices in the UK. ‘How many offices are there?’ - ‘There are three in Britain and two in the United States.’

The questions are different but the answers are almoust the same! Why?

Second situation:

‘How many offices are there?’ - ‘There are three in Britain and two in the United States.’

'How many sites are there in the UK?' - 'There's the head office, the other offices, the store branches and our warehouse.'

The answers are different but the questions are the same! Why?

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    Does this have anything to do with English? The same situation is possible in all other languages.
    – Mr Lister
    Commented Apr 6, 2014 at 13:56

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Firstly, it is the case of interview so the answers provided are superfluous! Just to give more (or say better) information. The answers, if you see from a grammarian's view, could be much shorter and precise.

'Are there many offices?' - No, not many.
How many officers are there? - There are five officers.

But then, when you reply No, not many. the obvious question will be Okay, how many? and you'll have to reply five. And since the scene is of the interview, every information is important and thus, where are those five officers is also mentioned with their location, I think.

Same with scene two:

How many offices are there?’ - There are five offices
How many sites are there in the UK? - There are [number] sites in the UK. I'd also upvote for the answer given there for this question. Since 'sites' also refer to 'type' of offices/premises, it's better to answer that way than giving the number.

Again, it's an interview and the obvious questions respectively will be where are those offices and where are those sites and to avoid multiple questions, I guess, all the information is included in one smart answer.

Now take the answers given and let's guess their questions

How many offices are there in the UK? - There's one head office and there are four other offices in the UK.
How many offices are there worldwide? - There are three in Britain and two in the United States.

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