"That" as an adverb in negative sentence

Question

Is it right to use "that" in front of adjectives such as "much" or "many" as an adverb in negative or interrogative sentences?:

-I don't have that much money.

-Do you really have that many friends?

Which one is correct? Do I need to modify any of these sentences?

They're both fine. And they could both be used with either of two "nuances". Sometimes, that contextually refers to some specific amount of money / number of friends that's already been mentioned - in which case it's more likely to be heavily stressed in speech, but this isn't always the case. Other times (less likely to be stressed), it doesn't refer to any particular amount - you could think of it as meaning [not] as much as you might have thought, or [not] as much as the average person has. — FumbleFingers, Apr 12 '17 at 14:11

Peter · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-12 16:02:10Z

1

You usage is correct in both examples.

That can be interchanged with so without loss of understanding

I don't have so much money.
Do you really have so many friends?

without additional context, usually using that implies a large amount as in a lot of.

I don't have a lot of money.
Do you really have a lot of friends?

The opposite would be

so much <> so little
so many <> so few

answered Apr 12 '17 at 16:02

Peter

65.1k6 gold badges62 silver badges120 bronze badges

Add a comment |

1 Answer 1