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Can "much noise" not only mean "very noisy" but also "many noises", such as bird noise, people noise and car noise?

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Noise can be a countable, or an uncountable noun. That is, many different sounds can collectively be called "a noise". But, if you can isolate different sounds, you can then refer to them individually as "noises".

For example, the sound of many different cars could be called "traffic noise". It could include engines, horns, all many different vehicles. On the other hand, you could refer to "the noise from a car engine".

  • "Much" is used with non-count nouns.

  • "Many" is used with countable nouns.

So you would say, for example:

  • "There is much more noise here than I imagined"
  • "There are many different noises"

Note also that 'noise' and 'sound' are used in different ways. "Noise" tends to infer that it is an unpleasant sound. It can also suggest that the sound is abnormal. For example, you might say "the sound of a car engine" to mean the normal, expected sound it makes, but "noise from a car engine" to refer to some unpleasant, irregular sound coming from it.

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The use of "much" means you are talking about a quantity of something. For example "much flour". Individual grains of flour cannot be distinguished, so it's a quantity of flour (much flour), and not individual flours (of which there would be many).

"Much noise" means a lot of "noise", with "noise" as a global concept. One noise can be comprised of many noises, but the use of "much", means that it is being taken as a whole.

A zoo makes very much noise. The animals make many different noises.

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