What is the difference between " so much" and "as much" ? Please explain their correct usage.
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In (nearly?) all contexts, they're equivalent. Offhand I can't think of a context where you can't switch from one to the other, but as is definitely more common overall.– FumbleFingersCommented May 28, 2023 at 12:36
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...but it's usually If you so much as bend the truth, I'll kill you!, and You shouldn't talk as much as him!– FumbleFingersCommented May 28, 2023 at 12:40
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@FumbleFingers They are most definitely not the same in all contexts. I liked her so much. I liked her as much as you like him.– LambieCommented Oct 30, 2023 at 16:05
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Those are exactly the two usages presented first in my answer below, where I point out that You can't swap either of those usages. Come to that, they're the same two usages in my second comment above. But the distinction isn't all that clear-cut, which is why I gave a third possibility in the answer where some (mainly, older) speakers still use so in "comparative" (as opposed to "emphatic") contexts like I haven't got so much money as you. But I tend to interpret that usage as "part-emphatic" anyway, even if the original source never intended any such nuance.– FumbleFingersCommented Oct 30, 2023 at 16:28
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@FumbleFingers You start out in your first comment with an inaccurate statement. It's very clear that you do regardless of how you are now providing caveats...– LambieCommented Oct 30, 2023 at 16:34
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2 Answers
I don't know why you complain so much. [a lot]
I don't know why you complain as much as that other kid. [comparative]
"as much" as a comparative is not always spelled out:
"I don't like him as much." [compared to some unnamed person the speakers know about already.]
If you so much as do x, you will be in trouble.
That use of so much as is an adverbial idiomatic usage.
There's been a significant usage shift over the last couple of centuries...
...but obviously the real-world context in which people say not so / as much as you hasn't changed significantly. To my mind, that's all the evidence we need, to say the two are "interchangeable".
Equally obviously, as should be the preferred choice for learners in (almost?) all contexts today. Except in certain "emphatic" contexts like #1 below, where there's no obvious alternative being referenced...
1: I've got so much money I don't really need a job
2: I've got as much money as you
You can't swap either of those usages. But note that if #2 is negated...
3: I haven't got so much money as you
...then so is at the very least "acceptable" - but becoming less common as time passes (most of us use as in context #3 today).
answered May 28, 2023 at 16:00
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They are not interchangeable: I don't like her as much as you do. is not: I don't like her so much.– LambieCommented Oct 30, 2023 at 16:35
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I don't think you understand the significance of my chart. Unless you're going to claim that the real-world context in which people say "not so / as much as you" has changed significantly (which I think is implausible), the chart clearly implies that usage has changed over time. I have gone into some detail above (and in my comments) to set out how the current favoured usage split differentiates, but it's misleading to claim that the older usage is "incorrect". We wouldn't want to encourage learners to think they're finding "mistakes" all over the place in older texts. Commented Oct 30, 2023 at 17:05
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Never mind. It's too much trouble. The negation was not part of the question.– LambieCommented Oct 30, 2023 at 20:39