Mucho

Mucho is a Spanish word that functions as a determiner, adjective, and adverb meaning “a lot” or “much.” As a determiner or adjective, it precedes a noun and agrees in gender and number: mucho dinero, mucha agua, muchos libros, muchas personas. As an adverb, it modifies verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs and does not change form: habla mucho, es mucho más fácil, no es mucho.

In usage, muchos/muchas are used for plural nouns, while mucho/mucha is used for singular or mass nouns. For example, tienes mucho tiempo (you have a lot of time) versus tienes muchos libros (you have many books). Mucho also appears in common fixed expressions such as mucho gusto (pleasure to meet you), mucho tiempo (a long time), and mucho más/menos (much more/less).

Etymology and cognates: mucho derives from Latin multus, meaning “much” or “many.” Related forms appear in other Romance languages, including portuguese muito and italian molto. The development of the word in Spanish reflects typical Romance patterns of gender and number agreement for adjectives.

Pronunciation and tone: in standard Spanish, mucho is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable: MU-cho. The word is neutral in tone and widely used in formal, informal, written, and spoken contexts. Intensification forms such as muchísimo (very much) exist for emphasis.

See also: cuanto, tanto, tanto como; comparison with synonyms and quantifiers in Spanish grammar.