muy or mucho

Question

When to use muy and when to use mucho

Thank you! - johnjwoods, Jan 20, 2014

Answer 1

Muy and Mucho are used to describe quantities and intensities, they mean in English much, a lot of, very and others of the same kind related.

Muy comes before adverbs and adjectives, it is an adverb, therefore it relates to other adjectives and adverbs, see an example:

El perro está muy mojado --- The dog is very wet.

Alicia es muy guapa --- Alicia is very beautiful.

Muy never changes, it is always the same regardless of gender and number.

Mucho is an adjective, so it relates only to nouns and it also comes after verbs, see an example:

Almudena tiene mucho dinero --- Almudena has a lot of money.

Yo tengo muchas cosas que hacer hoy --- I have many things to do today.

When Mucho comes after a verb it denotes intensity and it is always singular and masculine.

Maritiza trabaja mucho --- Maritza works very much.

Mucho can be changed to muchos, mucha and muchas, according to the genre and number of the noun being related.

Mucho (Singular Masculine) --- Muchos (Plural Masculine) Mucha (Singular Feminine) --- Muchas (Plural Feminine)

There are four adjectives and four adverbs which are used with mucho though. These are: Adverbs --- más, menos, antes y después, Adjectives --- menor, mayor, peor y mejor. They are mainly used to make comparisons. See an example:

Yo tengo mucho más experiencia que usted. --- I have much more experience than you.

Gonzálo es mucho mejor jugador de fútbol que yo. --- Gonzálo plays football better than me or Gonzalo is a better football player than me.

Mi Portugués es mucho peor que el tuyo. --- My Portuguese is worse than yours or I speak Portuguese worse than you.

In these cases, Mucho does not change, it's always singular and masculine.

If you have any other doubts, please ask.

Gracias - Eleanorah, Jan 21, 2014

Answer 2

They are used to describe quantities and amounts e.g. Mi padre es muy alto (my dad is very tall) and Tengo mucho trabajo (I have a lot of work). Depending on the context they can mean different things such as 'Mucho' can mean many/much/ a lot and 'Muy' means very however 'mucho' comes in different forms as it must agree with gender whereas muy does not change, also muy comes before an adverb or adjective.

I am pretty sure someone with more experience in Spanish can explain in more detail but hope this helps!