Liveinjapan  +  491869 Sat, 22 Mar 08 04:42 PM Italy has as many natural resources as Japan does. Let's say Italy and Japan are poor in natural resources. Can I use many in this case? What I want to say here is both have about the same small amount of natural resources. Thanks LiJ _LSUCS> Liveinjapan Joined on Sun, Feb 4 2007 Osaka, Japan Senior Member 2,280 Please feel free to correct any words I wrote.LiJ

	RayH  +  491901 Sat, 22 Mar 08 06:29 PM Try these:  Italy and Japan are equally poor in natural resources. Italy is poor in natural resources as is Japan.  RayH Joined on Sat, Mar 22 2008 Contributing Member 1,555 Native speaker of U. S. English. Not a grammar expert.

	Kooyeen  +  491903 Sat, 22 Mar 08 06:31 PM I don't agree. I think "as many as" is used for neutral comparisons, even if there are "few" things. More or less like when you ask "How many...?". If you already know that there are "few" things, do you ask "How few...?" instead? I don't think so. Just my opinion, anyway. Kooyeen Joined on Thu, Dec 22 2005 Italy Senior Member 4,984 Parental Advisory / Explicit Posts

	Cool Breeze  +  491931 Sat, 22 Mar 08 08:09 PM Kooyeen “I don't agree. I think "as many as" is used for neutral comparisons, even if there are "few" things. More or less like when you ask "How many...?". If you already know that there are "few" things, do you ask "How few...?" instead? I don't think so. Just my opinion, anyway. ”   Hi Kooyeen I agree with the natives. This is a borderline case. Resources  is a plural but it is the amount rather than number of these resources that comes to mind first. Therefore there are restrictions on expressions that are normally used with plural nouns. Some of them sound unidiomatic. Cheers CB  Cool Breeze Joined on Fri, Apr 7 2006 Senior Member 3,979 "I hope you'll all live to be 150 years old - and the last voice you hear is mine!" Frank Sinatra on stage in Oslo, Norway, 28 September 1991 Plurals, Nouns