A total VS As much as

[majid72]

Is there any difference between the two sentences?

- Police fired a total of 20 shots at the car.

- Police fired as much as 20 shots at the car.

Also, I wonder what's difference between the two followings.

- As much as 8 officers were involved in the shooting

- 8 officers were involved in the shooting.

Thanks a lot.

[Horsa]

First, as the nouns in your example sentences are countable you need to use 'many' and not 'much'.

Then the difference in meaning between the sentences using 'as many as' and those not using it can be understood as follows

- Police fired a total of 20 shots at the car. Exactly 20 shots were fired.

- Police fired as many as 20 shots at the car. The number of shots fired is uncertain but not more than 20.

There is a similar difference between the sentences in your second example.

[Uncle M]

Police fired as many as 20 shots at the car.

The expression 'as many as' can be used to emphasise the number of shots fired. For example, one may have expected them to fire six shots, but they fired as many as 20, which is more than would be expected.

Dave