they're the ones that aren't making very much

[5jj]

Sorry, but I just can't see the benefits of thinking of all as a pronoun there.

Fine. We don't agree, and probably never will. Hence my departure from the thread.

 

[jutfrank]

We don't agree, and probably never will.

Agreed. Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[brianok]

No, not an adjective, but yes, very clearly grades much.

If not an adjective, then what is the part of speech of "much" there? According to your opinion that there is an omitted "money" after "much", isn't it obvious that "much" functions as an adjective that quantifes "money"?

 

[jutfrank]

Forget about parts of speech. That won't get you anywhere. You should focus on meaning first. Yes, much quantifies an omitted money.

 

[brianok]

No, not an adjective, but yes, very clearly grades much.

Forget about parts of speech. That won't get you anywhere. You should focus on meaning first. Yes, much quantifies an omitted money.

Ok, I get your perspective. Thanks for that.

 

[emsr2d2]

Ok

You've written that a couple of times and I've corrected it each time. You have two options at the start of a sentence:
Okay
OK

In the middle of a sentence, you can use:
okay
OK

There is no instance in which "Ok" is correct.

Also, there was no need to write post #25. You should simply have clicked on the "Thank" button on both of jutfrank's responses.

 

[Rover_KE]

There is no instance in which "Ok" is correct.

... though unfortunately you will see it used by people who don't know any better.

 

[PaulMatthews]

usages about "very much"

I heard a native speaker say in a video that "If you look at the hardest workers out there,usually, they're the ones that aren't making very much. The people that are making all the money are the ones not working very hard." Is "much" in the phrase "very much" in the sentence said by the native speaker a noun or a pronoun refering to money? As far as I know, "very much" usually is used to modify verbs or adjectives. So, how so?

... they're the ones that aren't making very much

"Much" is neither a noun nor a pronoun. It belongs to the word class (part of speech) degree determinative. Here, it’s functioning in a 'fused determiner-head' noun phrase, where “much” is best understood as “much money”, which is of course a noun phrase. Determinative “much” can be modified by the adverb “very” to give the determinative phrase “very much”.

By 'fused', we mean that the functions of 'head' and 'determiner' are combined, or 'fused'; in this case the single word "much" is simultaneously head and determiner in the noun phrase "much".