In speech culture, there are certain norms. These are language means that are preferred by society as the most correct and suitable. For those who know Russian literary, compliance with these standards is mandatory, because they are the backbone of the entire language system.
And from the point of view of normative speech, both written and oral, the word "how many" does not exist at all.
How much can you repeat!
How much is a pronoun (refers to independent parts of speech). Although it is often mistakenly called a numeral. But after all, it does not name the numbers as the numerals ten, fifty, twenty five, but merely points to it. And, accordingly (like so many and several), the word "how much" refers to the category of numerals. That is, in the sentence it replaces the numerals.
- How many times have you to repeat how it is spelled “how many” correctly!
This word makes out grammatically interrogative sentences.
Thus, “how much” is an interrogative pronoun. He does not have a grammatical category of number, nor a gender. Associating with a noun according to the principle of quantitative numeral, it changes only in cases. Now, to understand how “how many” are written (or rather, not written), you need to change this word by case:
I. p. - how many hours?
R. p. - from how many hours?
D. p. - how many hours?
V. p. - what time (how many) hours?
T. p. - happy with how many hours?
P. p. - how many hours?
An important point here is that in all case forms of this pronoun it is pronounced with emphasis on the vowel “o” in the first syllable of the word.
The interesting question of time assumes a dative case and will sound like this: "how many hours." And the "how many hours" option is erroneous.
As we see, the case form “how many” simply does not exist.
“K” or “ko”
Some prepositions of the Russian language form pairs. For instance:
- k - ko;
- in - in;
- without - without;
- before - before;
- s - co;
- from - from;
- nad - it is necessary;
- from - from;
- under - under;
- about - about - about.
The choice of their use is dictated by certain rules that are derived from the law of upward sonority. They are inherited by the modern Russian language from Old Russian.
In the question under consideration (as it is written “how many”), the correct pretext, except for the form “how many,” is the preposition ko. “O” is added at the junction of several consonants in a row (k, s, k). This makes speech more harmonious and facilitates pronunciation. The "how many" form is, in principle, permissible and correct. But since it is less harmonious, its use in speech is not particularly welcome.
Also, “ko” is used in the following cases.
- At the word “day” (if you mean something dedicated to it) - a bouquet for Teacher’s Day, a card for Valentine’s Day.
- At some words, consisting of one syllable, for example: to the bottom and to the ditch, to moss and to the forehead, to rye and to ice, to the mouth and to the lion.
- In the dative case with the words:
- every, all, all;
- Tuesday, second, second;
- many, many.
There is an alternative
So, “how many” or “how many”, decided. Both options are incorrect.
Perhaps, someone who’s called doesn’t turn his tongue and doesn’t raise his hand to use this rotation in the way it is spoken and spelled correctly. "How many" in this case can be replaced by "what time is it."
- What time are you waiting for us to visit?
You can also use the “by what time” turn.
- What time do you go to the doctor?
However, the latter option is considered colloquial. And yet even simple speech is preferable to frankly illiterate! And now, if someone asks, “How many is spelled?”, You can safely send his grammar to learn!