How much milk/how many bottles of milk

[worcester]

Hello everyone,

customer- "Have you got any milk?"
seller- "Yes, I have."
customer- "Can I have some?"
seller- "Yes, how much do you want?"
customer- "Two bottles please."

I was told that "How much?" is wrong in this situation and "How many" should be used, because milk is sold in bottles, but nobody mentions the container noun "bottles" until at the end of the conversation. I need your opinion on this one please. Can I use "How much?" in this example or should I use "How many?"

Thank you.

 

[emsr2d2]

"How much?" is fine. Milk comes in different quantities, even if it comes in bottles or cartons. The shop might have litre bottles, half-litre bottles, pints, half-pints, two-litre cartons etc. If you know exactly how much milk you want, then you can answer that question with "I need five litres of milk please". The shop assistant will then get you five litres of milk. Of course, if you know how much milk is in each bottle, then you can answer "Two bottles" because you will know how much milk they will contain in total.