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1.However much people know about a risk..(noun clause)
2.However much people I know..(noun clause)

3.How many people know about a risk..
4.How many people I know..

As grammar books say, 'much' is used with uncountable nouns and 'many' is used with plural nouns. so
1.why are plural nouns used after 'however much'?
2.Is there any grammatical theory using with 'however much'? (like however much +plural and uncountable nouns)

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To begin with, there should be no doubt that "much" is both a determiner and an adverb. Please refer to Longman Dictionary. I think the sentences presented above will be intelligible easily if we look at the sentences in which much has been used as an adveb such as I didn't hurt him much, he is never satisfied, however much he earns, however much Adam works, he is not appreciated, etc.

Now I come to the point. In the first two sentences, much has been used as an adverb; it refers to the verb "know", not the noun "people. In addition, the first sentence sounds OK but the second one doesn't. It should be "However much I know (about) people. Also, if we want a detetrminer to refer to people, then we will have to use many (the right determiner for people) instead of much.

On the other hand, "many" has been used in the last two sentences as a determiner that refers to "people".

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    Do 'However many people know about a risk' and 'However many people I know..' sound good?
    – Dinusha
    Commented Oct 15, 2014 at 10:44
  • Yes, I think they sound good if however is used as a determiner, not as an adverb, referring to many people.
    – Khan
    Commented Oct 17, 2014 at 3:47

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