A2
muy and mucho
How Spanish divides muy and mucho, why one agrees and the other does not, and the expressions that take mucho.
English very and a lot map onto these two, and the split is grammatical rather than about degree.
muy goes with adjectives and adverbs
It never changes form.
Está muy cansada.
she-is very tired (f.)
She’s very tired.
Habla muy rápido.
he-speaks very fast
He speaks very fast.
mucho goes with nouns, and agrees
Hay mucha gente.
there-is much (f.) people
There are a lot of people.
Tengo muchos amigos.
I-have many (m.pl.) friends
I have a lot of friends.
Tengo mucho amigos.
Tengo muchos amigos.
Mucho agrees with the noun it modifies, in gender and number both. Only before an adjective does it stop changing — and there the word is muy anyway.
After a verb, mucho is invariable
Modifying the verb rather than a noun, it takes no ending.
Trabajo mucho.
I-work much
I work a lot.
The tener expressions take mucho, not muy
Because what follows is a noun — see tener.
Tengo mucha hambre.
I-have much (f.) hunger
I’m very hungry.
Tengo muy hambre.
Tengo mucha hambre.
Hambre is a noun, so it takes mucha. English very hungry has an adjective and misleads you here. The same applies to mucho frío, mucho miedo, mucha sed.
muchísimo
The intensified form, and very common: me gusta muchísimo. It agrees like mucho — muchísimas gracias.