Hoping the customers would not carelessly throw too many of

I think there is a mention in mgmat book that furniture is considered uncountable. Similar setting here.

D

Posted from my mobile device

Yes, tableware is considered uncountable. The issue is not whether we can count items of tableware, but whether the word itself refers to something in countable form. We can count forks and knives, but we can't count "one tableware, two tableware . . . "

A few examples:

sand--uncountable
grains of sand--countable

students--countable
the student body--uncountable

people--countable
population--uncountable

Hoping the customers would not carelessly throw too many of them away, Bob's Java Hut recently began supplying metal tableware instead of plastic.

A)Hoping the customers would not carelessly throw too many of them away, Bob's Java Hut recently began supplying metal tableware instead of plastic
B)Hoping the customers would not carelessly throw too many of it away, Bob's Java Hut recently began supplying metal tableware instead of plastic
C)Hoping the customers would not carelessly throw too much of them away, Bob's Java Hut recently began supplying metal tableware instead of plastic
D)Hoping the customers would not carelessly throw too much of it away, Bob's Java Hut recently began supplying metal tableware instead of plastic correct
E)Hoping the customers would not carelessly throw too much of it away, metal tableware has begun to be supplied recently instead of plastic at Bob's Java Hut[/quote] wrong modifier


Here we have to look for three things
1. Modifier for first clause.
2. S-V pair agreement.
3. Use of much/many for uncountable noun i.e. plastic (not plastic tableware)

Use of 'it' is fine as subject is singular.
In given statement it was mentioned that "Bob's Java Hut recently began supplying metal tableware instead of plastic". here PLASTIC is mentioned only, not plastic tableware and as we know that we can not count only plastic so use of much is correct.



All the very best.

I'm also going for B as the answer.

Tableware is countable.
Please find the link mentioned below for reference.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tableware

Can anyone please provide a correct reason for OA and explain me why B is incorrect.

The most unGMATTish aspect is that this naïve topic wants to use, 'instead of' in all the choices. For GMAT, 'instead of' is never correct, when you want to show preference of one over another. 'Rather than' is the Gmat's natural choice in such cases.

However, some basic ideas: If it is countable then it has to be 'too many of them'. On the contrary, If uncountable, then it should be too much of it. Both 'too many of it' and too much of them' are inherently wrong.

Normally, tableware is a collective noun taken as a quantum noun and therefore singular. Dictionary also cites 'tablewares' as the plural form of 'tableware'. Therefore, it looks as though 'too much of it' as used in D is more appropriate than 'too many of them'.

Thank you for the response sir!

Lastly, I'd like to ask you whether 'too many of it' is not appropriate to use here. (in option B)

Error Analysis:
Option A: Pronoun error. Subject is tableware(singular). So it should be used. Also usage of much is correct w.r.to uncountable nouns
Option B: usage of much is correct w.r.to uncountable nouns.
Option C: Pronoun error. Subject is tableware(singular). So it should be used.
Option D: Correct
Option E: Modifier error.

shalini14, tableware is definitely not countable in this context. As daagh and the article you cited point out, we can pluralize tableware to tablewares, so in that case it might be countable, but that would be if we were discussing more than one kind of tableware (and not just forks and spoons). This will almost never happen! It would have to be something along the lines of "The tablewares of ancient Mesopotamia and modern-day Canada have some surprising similarities."

In any case, B is also ruled out because we can never under any circumstances say "too many of it." "It" is singular, and "many" refers to more than one thing.

As for an explanation of the correct answer, abhi4212 has provided a perfect key above. D wins by process of elimination, since it's the only choice that uses "too much of it" (uncountable) without introducing an error (as E does).

Thanks for highlighting! 'too many of it'.

IMO, D will be the correct answer as we are considering "tableware" (like furniture) and not the "tableware items" (like furniture items).
We do not say - "how many furniture do you want to buy ?". Instead, "how much furniture do you want to buy?" is used.

thanks

Could someone clarify the use of much x many in the question, thnks

Hello from the GMAT Club VerbalBot!

Thanks to another GMAT Club member, I have just discovered this valuable topic, yet it had no discussion for over a year. I am now bumping it up - doing my job. I think you may find it valuable (esp those replies with Kudos).

Want to see all other topics I dig out? Follow me (click follow button on profile). You will receive a summary of all topics I bump in your profile area as well as via email.