What goes with marks - much or many?

Question

1) How many marks do I need to get in order t get into the college?

2) How much marks do I need to get in order to get into the college?

Does the 2nd sentence without the word marks sound better? " How much do I need to get..."

If by marks you mean grades, neither many nor much is appropriate. Marks are not counted or measured in that way—you don't have a quantity or measurement of them. Instead, you would ask What marks do I need to get in order to get into college? Or when you say marks are you referring to the currency and asking how much it costs for tuition? — Jason Bassford, Commented Aug 26, 2019 at 3:08
@Jason Bassford you maybe completely correct in your statement, in the area, region, country you live in. However you would not be where I live. All the marks from all subjects taken in the final examination (including Physical Education) are totalled and your accumulative mark acts as a bench mark for entrance to the relative School, College, University. — Brad, Commented Aug 26, 2019 at 6:12
@Jason Bassford Most colleges in India have marks instead of grades as the yardstick for taking students, for example, one might need to score at least 230 out of 300 to get into a particular college. — Shivam, Commented Aug 26, 2019 at 8:16

Peter Jennings · Accepted Answer · 2019-08-26 09:21:11Z

1

Sentence 1 is correct English, Sentence 2 would not be used.However you could make sentence 1 better, and simpler by asking

How many marks do I need to get into college?

"How much do I need to get into college" would be understood to mean "How much money do I need to get into college"

answered Aug 25, 2019 at 23:50

Peter Jennings

8,5121 gold badge19 silver badges34 bronze badges

Thank you. Would you use that sentence yourself for inquiring about the cut-off marks of any college or would you use a different sentence?
– Shivam
Commented Aug 26, 2019 at 8:07
That sentence does imply asking for the minimum requirement. If you had a particular college in mind then you could ask "How many marks do I need to get into [name of college] ?"
– Peter Jennings
Commented Aug 26, 2019 at 9:24
How about if we do away with the word "marks" and just say "How much do I need to score to get into the college?" Would this be alright?
– Shivam
Commented Aug 27, 2019 at 10:22
@Shivam No, as I said in my answer, in idiomatic English this would be understood as "How much money do I need to go to college"
– Peter Jennings
Commented Aug 27, 2019 at 12:44
Even if we use the word score?
– Shivam
Commented Aug 27, 2019 at 12:46

| Show 2 more comments

1 Answer 1