As Much? Or As Many?

Diana asks:
As is known to well-educated English speakers, the difference between "as many as" and "as much as" is that the former modifies a countable noun while the latter modified an uncountable noun. But on hearing the utterances like "the whale can travel AS MUCH AS 100 kilometers a day",I don't think I fully understand the usage. Can we also say "AS MANY AS" in the sentence?

What a great question! You've brought up an important point.

Yes—we use "as many as" for countable nouns: "As many as four hundred persons attended the wedding." And we use "as much as" for uncountable nouns: "She makes as much money as he does."

But English always has exceptions. In this case, we can sometimes use a plural as a singular:
"Six months is a long time for a probationary appointment."
"A hundred thousand dollars was stolen in the robbery."
We're not thinking about individual months or dollars, so we treat the whole amount as if it were singular.

In the example you give, we should treat "100 kilometers" as a singular—the distance a whale can travel in a day.

Comments

[Richa]

Hi,

I was hitting my head against the wall for this particular usage when I came across thsi blog.

Could you please help? Here it is:

According to a 1996 survey by the National Association of College and
University Business Officers, more than three times as many independent
institutions of higher education charge tuition and fees of under $8,000 a
year
a) as charge over $16,000.
b) as those charging over $16,000.
Which of these two is correct?

I would go with a) becasue :
1. as many independent institutes charge x as (those) charge Y sounds correct.
2. it retains parallelism, unlike b) that compares charge with charging.

Could you please throw some light?

Thanks in anticipation!

Regards,
Richa.