There is/are so/too much homework.

[Silverobama]

Hi.

My student Alice complained to me that she got much homework at school today. I wonder which is the most natural sentence to express the idea:

There is/are so/too much homework today.

Much appreciated!

 

[5jj]

'Are' is not possible with uncountable 'homework'.

Both 'so' and 'too' are possible.

 

[Silverobama]

'Are' is not possible with uncountable 'homework'.

Both 'so' and 'too' are possible.

Will "I've so much homework to do today" be better than "There is so much homework today"?

 

[emsr2d2]

Will Would "I've so much homework to do today" be better than "There is so much homework today"?

Better? In what way do you mean better? The two sentences have completely different meanings so you need to choose the one that conveys the meaning you require.

 

[Silverobama]

Better? In what way do you mean better?

In the context of my student Alice's complaint to her homework. I think when she said "I've so much homework to do today" she meant that "she has a lot of homework to do". And when she said "There is so much homework today" she was still complaining that "She has much homework to do today".

 

[emsr2d2]

"There is so much homework today" isn't very natural even though it's grammatical. It doesn't necessarily mean that the speaker has a lot of homework. That's the main difference between the two.

 

[Skrej]

I would take 'There is so much homework today' to be a reference to that particular class only. I would take 'I have so much homework today' as a comment on the total accumulation of homework from all her classes.

 

[Silverobama]

I would take 'There is so much homework today' to be a reference to that particular class only. I would take 'I have so much homework today' as a comment on the total accumulation of homework from all her classes.

Then "There is so much homework today" is natural, but why did emsr2d2 said it's not natural?

 

[Rover_KE]

She said it because native English-speaking adolescents don't talk like that. You're more likely to hear—peppered with expletives—

I've got loads of homework tonight.
I've got so much homework I'll have to stop in.
It'll take me hours to do all the lousy homework I've got tonight.

 

[Silverobama]

She said it because native English-speaking adolescents don't talk like that. You're more likely to hear—peppered with expletives—

I've got loads of homework tonight.
I've got so much homework I'll have to stop in.
It'll take me hours to do all the lousy homework I've got tonight.

That's what I wanted, idiomatic English.

However, I think native speakers would say "There is so much homework today" in some specific contexts.

 

[emsr2d2]

That's what I wanted -- idiomatic English.

Then that's what you should have asked us for! You asked us which of your two suggested sentences was the more natural. That's the question we answered, trying to stay as close to your original wording as possible.

However, I think native speakers would say "There is so much homework today" in some specific contexts.

I'm not disputing that. Skrej's suggestion is one of the possible contexts in which it might work. That wasn't the context you gave us.

 

[Tdol]

Then "There is so much homework today" is natural, but why did emsr2d2 said it's not natural?

Because you asked in the case of an individual.