Believer  +  225870 Tue, 16 May 06 02:52 PM 1. I got this sentence from a post and am wondering why one would use the word "much" like here when the word "words" is a countable noun in plural. I must say I use this sentence a lot myself.  I have tried to keep your words as much as possible. 2. I also got this from a post and am wondering if we can delete the word "up" and it will still do the job. The crowd fill (up) the court room.  3. How can we know when to use the phrase "over some period of time" correctly? She waited for over two years. She waited over two years.   Believer Joined on Mon, Jan 2 2006 Contributing Member 1,969 Plurals, Nouns

	nona the brit  +  225889 Tue, 16 May 06 04:10 PM 1) Much in this sentence is being used as the adverb meaning 'to a great extent'. 2) The crowd fills up the court room or the crowd fills the court room are both fine. 3) In your first sentence, she waited for two years and still continued waiting after that. Over has the meaning of 'more than'. In the second sentence, it is not as clear. It could be that she waited during the two year period but then stopped waiting, or it could also mean she continued! nona the brit Joined on Wed, Sep 22 2004 England Veteran Member 11,713 The name says it all. Verbs, Adverbs