Erika came home from the home improvement store with too few

Question

Erika came home from the home improvement store with too  few stones for the patio and too much brick  for the flower beds.

A. few stones for the patio and too much brick

B. few stone for the patio and too much brick

C. few stones for the patio and too many brick

D. little stones for the patio and too many brick

E. few stones for the patio and too much bricks

pqhai · Accepted Answer

Hey guys. I think we could use grammar to eliminate incorrect answers.

If we use  "many" , we have to use  plural noun  after it >>>> (3) & (4) are out, because of  "many brick" 
If we use  "few" , we have to use  plural noun  after it also >>>> (2) is out, because of  "few stone" 
If we use  "much" , we have to use  singular noun  >>> (5) is out, because of  "much bricks"

Probably I don't know brick and stone, which one is countable or uncountable, but by using rules of "many", "much", "few", I can pick the right one much easier (just my own opinion).

Hope it helps.

daagh · Answer

Though brick is normally taken to be a countable noun when we think of the rectangular block of burnt clay, it is acceptable to use brick as uncountable when we refer to it in a sense of quantum of bricks or in the meaning of brick work or brick usage, just as we may say that five cans of water is too much for an hour’s journey. But when we describe brick as too many, then bick becomes certainly countable and we have to say too many bricks

A is good enough.

A is good enough.

daagh · Answer

In this figurative speech of writing, brick stands for the brick work in its entirety and not the individually countable bricks. In that sense, we can take brick to be singular and therefore too much brick is acceptable, although slightly odd to say. However stones are countable nouns and the appropriate adjective for stones is ‘few’. Now case by case,

1. Few stones for the patio and too much brick -  few stones and too much brick are good enough 
2. Few stone for the patio and too much brick ---  few stone is wrong 
 
3. Few stones for the patio and too many brick - ---  too many brick is wrong

4. Little stones for the patio and too many brick ----  too many brick are wrong 
 
5. few stones for the patio and too much bricks ----  too much bricks is wrong

doe007 · Answer

At first glance, all options seem to be incorrect. But after looking through these, option 1 seems best of all.

1. Brick can be countable or non-countable. Keep it.
2. "few stone" is incorrect. It should be "few stones".
3. "many brick" is incorrect. It should be "many bricks" or "much brick".
4. "little stones" and "many brick" are incorrect. Those should be "few stones" or "little stone" and "many bricks" or "much brick".
5. "much bricks" is incorrect. It should be "many bricks" or "much brick".

doe007 · Answer

Brick can be countable as well as uncountable (depending on use). See the following references from Oxford and Longman:
https://oald8.oxfordlearnersdictionaries ... ry/brick_1
https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/brick_1

Stone also can be countable as well as uncountable (depending on use). See the following references from Oxford and Longman:
https://oald8.oxfordlearnersdictionaries ... nary/stone
https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/stone_1

We cannot say brick can be only countable or brick can be only uncountable. Same goes for stone.

doe007 · Answer

Option C says "many brick" which makes the option incorrect. It would have been correct if it were "many bricks".

You are right to says that countable "brick" would make more sense in this case. But option B,C,D,E are wrong grammatically and  option A is the only option which does  NOT  have any grammatical mistake .

Rule for GMAT SC:   Correctness > Clarity > Concision

There are plenty discussions and analysis in this thread to show correctness/incorrectness of each option.

OA is option A   and that is the correct one.

Information to help you: In GMAT, only proper utilization of time is to understand why an OA is correct and why other options are wrong. Only this strategy can help in concurring GMAT. (We need to follow their rules as we are playing in their field.)

doe007 · Answer

I never said "bricks is uncountable". I said " bricks can be countable as well as uncountable ". I said "correctness prevails clarity". I said "option A does not have any grammatical mistake and all other options have grammatical mistakes". If you think otherwise, please explain where exactly is the   " grammatical " mistake   in option A and how do you consider any of the other options to be "  grammatically  " correct. If you cannot show any   grammatical   mistake in option A and if you cannot show any other flawless option, there is no point in stretching this discussion as this might be confusing and useless for other members.

You need to read the earlier posts in the spirit of understanding (without being defensive) and you will get the answer on why an OA is an OA.

Remember, the question on whether  brick  should be used as countable or uncountable here is nothing but clarity issue -- it has nothing to do with grammar.

doe007 · Answer

In GMAT, you will find many such questions where all options have some or other problem. You need to go by the rule of  correctness > clarity > concision . Grockit may not be a very good source, but this question is close to many OG type questions. Here you got to find which is best from all odds. Also you need to understand the difference between correctness and clarity as you are treating the clarity problem of option A to be incorrectness. You may stick to to your own idea at your own risk and nobody can help you in that case.

I repeat: "   Option A has no grammatical mistake (though it has a clarity issue). All other options are grammatically incorrect. This makes option A to win over others.   " Period.

KyleWiddison · Answer

Yeah, this one is confusing. It's a question about countable nouns but it's really tricky with brick/bricks. The deal is that it can work either way. Brick in the singular is not countable - 'Look at how much brick they used on that house'. In the plural, bricks is countable - 'The workers needed more bricks to finish off the front wall.'

So, technically you can use the uncountable 'brick' on this sentence and answer choice A is correct. You can easily argue that from a meaning standpoint you should probably use the countable 'bricks'.

KW

Posted from my mobile device

mvictor · Answer

this question tests countable/uncountable nouns. moreover, I doubt that such a question would appear on gmat.
few stones ok - too much brick - suspicious, but will see what other options are.

1. few stones for the patio and too much brick
suspicious of the much brick, but keeping it.

2. few stone for the patio and too much brick
few stone - well, if we use few, then the stone should be stones. this one little "s" makes it incorrect B.

3. few stones for the patio and too many brick
many brick - if bricks are countable as the "many" suggest, then logically, it should be bricks. incorrect.

4. little stones for the patio and too many brick
little is for uncountable nouns. thus incorrect. many is for countable, but brick is without "s". out.

5. few stones for the patio and too much bricks
much - is for uncountable, thus incorrect.

looks like A is the best so far.

mvictor · Answer

think this question was discussed on other threats as well..
few stones is correct.
D is out.
too much brick or too many bricks 
many brick is incorrect.
much bricks is incorrect.
B, C, and E are out.

A is the answer.

ExpertsGlobal5 · Answer

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Choice A:  This answer choice correctly uses the word "few" to refer to the countable noun "stones" and uses the word "much" to refer to the uncountable noun "brick". Thus, this answer choice is correct.

Choice B:  This answer choice uses the word "few" to refer to the uncountable noun "stone". Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Choice C:  This answer choice uses the word "many" to refer to the uncountable noun "brick". Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Choice D:  This answer choice incorrectly uses the word "little" to refer to the countable noun "stones" and uses the word "many" to refer to the uncountable noun "brick". Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Choice E:  This answer choice uses the word "much" to refer to the uncountable noun "brick". Thus, this answer choice is incorrect.

Hence, A is the best answer choice.

Please note that in their singular forms, nouns such as "stone" and "brick" can serve as material nouns. Furthermore, material nouns are always uncountable.

To understand the concept of "Collective, Countable, and Uncountable Nouns on GMAT", you may want to watch the following video (~ 2 minutes):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F3RVeQ6axY

All the best!
Experts' Global Team

VerbalBot · Answer

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Erika came home from the home improvement store with too few

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Erika came home from the home improvement store with too few

Prep Toolkit

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