I learned much of my English watching

Question

1. I learned much of my English vocabulary watching Hollywood movies.
2. I learned much of my English vocabulary from watching Hollywood movies.
3. I learned much of my English vocabulary by watching Hollywood movies.

Are these correct and if so, do they mean the same thing?

Answer 1

Here are the correct explanations. They are not equivalent, contrary to some other 'answers'.

1. I learned much of my English vocabulary [while] watching Hollywood movies.
   • "watching Hollywood movies" modifies "I" and conveys the learning circumstances.
2. I learned much of my English vocabulary from watching Hollywood movies.
   • "watching Hollywood movies" is the source of the learning.
3. I learned much of my English vocabulary by watching Hollywood movies.
   • "watching Hollywood movies" is the means of the learning.

They are semantically different, even though similar in what they convey. They respectively answer:

1. When did you learn your English vocabulary?
2. Where did you learn your English vocabulary from?
3. How did you learn your English vocabulary?

Answer 2

Yes, these are all idiomatic and equivalent. But note, not all of these work in other contexts.

• I learned all my English from Fred. —right
• I learned all my English by Fred. —wrong
• I learned all my English Fred. —wrong

For these, we changed from a verb to a noun, so only "from" works.

Or:

• I made this bowl by carving it out of wood. —right
• I made this bowl from carving it out of wood. —wrong

Here we go back to a verb, but I changed the first phrase from "learn" to "make," and it means something different and so takes different helpers.

Answer 3

None of those are really idiomatic, because "much" is used for non-countable nouns, and, unlike grammar, vocabulary is countable (words).

Idiomatic phrases would be:

• I learned most of my vocabulary from Hollywood movies.
• I learned a lot of my vocabulary from Hollywood movies.
• I learned some of my vocabulary from Hollywood movies.