# המון / הרבה / רב



## Zeevdovtarnegolet

Is this a synonym for harbe - meaning a lot?


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## ks20495

Yes.

המון literally means a crowd. But, it's used colloquially to mean to mean a lot.


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## Egmont

הרבה is more like "many" - more than "several," but perhaps not quite as much as "a lot." To me that's not quite as many as המון, though I can't come up with any hard dividing lines. I'd use המון when I wanted to stress how very many of something there are.


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## Zeevdovtarnegolet

Thanks for the help guys.  It is pronounced "hamon" right?


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## OsehAlyah

Egmont said:


> הרבה is more like "many" - more than "several," but perhaps not quite as much as "a lot." To me that's not quite as many as המון, though I can't come up with any hard dividing lines. I'd use המון when I wanted to stress how very many of something there are.


Hmmmm interesting. For some reason I've thought of המון as "many" and הרבה as "a lot ". And while very often they are interchangeable sometimes they can be distinct. Like for example:
1. I have a lot of work next week?

would only work with "a lot" or הרנה
No?


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## Egmont

OsehAlyah said:


> ... Like for example:
> 1. I have a lot of work next week?
> 
> would only work with "a lot" or הרנה
> No?


הרבה: I have a lot of work, I'm busy, but nothing particularly out of the ordinary.

המון: I have an unusually large amount of work, I'm swamped, leave me alone!


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## OsehAlyah

תודה ושבת שלום


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## ks20495

> For some reason I've thought of המון as "many" and הרבה as "a lot



I'm think the distinction you mean is between "many" and "much." "Many" is used for countable nouns, and "much" is used for uncountable nouns.

"A lot" is used for both:
I have a lot of friends = I have many friends (slightly formal)
I have a lot of work = I have much work (quite formal)

In Hebrew, that distinction does not exist. "הרבה" and "המון" are both used for countable AND uncountable nouns. Egmont is pretty much correct....I would say that "המון" is a colloquial form of "הרבה מאוד" (a great many [friends] /a great deal [of work])-- which doesn't really translate colloquially into English.


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## OsehAlyah

Thank you ks your post was very helpful.


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## sawyeric1

*>>> NEW QUESTION - threads merged by moderator <<<*​
רב - This masculine singular adjective means many. How is it possible for a plural concept like "many" to have a singular? And what's the difference between it and הרבה? Someone gave an answer about this in a different thread, but it was in Russian, which isn't helpful.

Thanks


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## amikama

sawyeric1 said:


> This masculine singular adjective means many. How is it possible for a plural concept like "many" to have a singular?


Good question! Never thought of it before 
I think that in the singular it usually describes uncountable nouns, in meaning of "a lot of", "a great deal of".
נשפך חלב רב - a lot of milk was spilled.



sawyeric1 said:


> And what's the difference between it and הרבה?


רב is an adjective and הרבה is an adverb. רב follows the noun and can be inflected, whereas הרבה is usually followed by the noun and can't be inflected.
In contexts where רב and הרבה are interchangeable, רב is usually a little more formal than הרבה.


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## sawyeric1

So when הרבה is used as a determiner, you can always replace it with רב? So

קנינו הרבה דברים​_We bought a lot of things_

Could also be

קנינו דברים רבים​?


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## amikama

Yes, הרבה דברים and דברים רבים mean about the same thing.


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## sawyeric1

What about המון? How does that compare? I used to think of it as "plenty" but I've seen it translated as "a lot".


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## amikama

sawyeric1 said:


> What about המון? How does that compare?


In sense of "many/much", המון is similar to הרבה:
הרבה דברים = המון דברים
הרבה חלב = המון חלב


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## shalom00

המון is usually used to mean more than just הרבה.
That is, הרבה מאד.


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## sawyeric1

So המון is a pretty informal word, like בא לי? Lower register?


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## sawyeric1

Nestlé produces many varieties of ice creams
נסטלה מייצרת מבחר רב של גלידות

Could you also say הרבה מבחר, even though מבחר is a countable thing? Or should you only use רב with countable things when you can't use their plurals (my tutor told me that the plural of מבחר can't be used with that meaning). 

Thanks


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## shalom00

Your tutor is correct.
מבחר is not countable.


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## sawyeric1

For a colloquial "הרבה מאוד" in English, "a ton of" would probably be the best equivalent


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## sawyeric1

Considering הרבה, המון, and רב -

You can only use הרבה with adjectives, right? - 

Your English is much better than my Hebrew
האנגלית שלך היא הרבה יותר טובה מהעברית שלי

And you can only use רב to mean greatly, right? - 

Israel isn’t as {greatly} densely populated as Holland
ישראל איננה מאוכלסת בצפיפות רבה כמו הולנד


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## sawyeric1

You can only use הרבה here, right? - 

I don’t remember much of my childhood
אני לא זוכר הרבה מהילדות שלי

Also, is "הרבה זמן" a set phrase so that you can't say "זמן רב"?

And in the same way, is "לא הרבה" a set phrase in response to "?מה נשמע"?


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## shalom00

הרבה is also itself an adjective.

יש לי הרבה עבודה.
יש לי הרבה חברים.


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## shalom00

sawyeric1 said:


> Also, is "הרבה זמן" a set phrase so that you can't say "זמן רב"?


You can say זמן רב.


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## sawyeric1

sawyeric1 said:


> So המון is a pretty informal word, like בא לי? Lower register?



My tutor said that it is lower register


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## Ali Smith

So, is the following sentence ambiguous?

היא לא אוהבת לכתוב הרבה.

She doesn’t like to write a lot (of letters, books, etc.)
She doesn’t like very much to write.


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