Grammar: Quantifiers/Intensifiers

Spanish Quantifiers/Intensifiers Revision

Quantifiers/Intensifiers modify nouns and tell you more about their quantity or degree in Spanish.
Intensifiers are words that give more force or a greater degree to adjectives or adverbs.
Note that unlike English, Spanish often uses “de” after quantities. For example, “mucho de”, “poco de”.

Some common quantifiers include: mucho (much/many), poco (little/few), todo (all), alguno (some), ninguno (none), tanto (so much), cuánto (how much), varios (several), etc.
Common intensifiers include: muy (very), bastante (quite), demasiado (too), tan (so), tanto (so much), más (more), menos (less), etc.

Negation in Spanish typically uses the word “no” before the verb. For example, ‘No tengo ningun libro.’ (I do not have any book.)
When ‘alguno’ and ‘ninguno’ are followed by a singular masculine noun, they shorten to ‘algún’ and ‘ningún’ respectively. For example, “No tengo ningún hermano” (I do not have any brother).
The relative quantity pronouns ‘algo’, ‘nada’, ‘todo’, ‘mucho’, ‘poco’, ‘bastante’, and quantity adverbs ‘más’, ‘menos’, ‘tanto’ can also be used in their comparative and superlative forms.
Spanish also has some special sentences using “cuanto más… más” and “cuanto menos… menos” to express a simultaneous increase or decrease in two situations.

Tengo mucho trabajo. (I have a lot of work.)
No hay ninguna razón. (There is no reason.)
Es demasiado caro. (It’s too expensive.)
Hay pocos dulces en el tarro. (There are few candies in the jar.)
Tiene tantas ideas como su hermano. (He has as many ideas as his brother.)
Cuanto más estudia, más aprende. (The more she studies, the more she learns.)
Cuanto menos veo la televisión, menos la extraño. (The less I watch TV, the less I miss it.)