“Too many” kinda sounds right to my ear because beans is plural, but the second logically seems right because its served by volume and is not ‘countable’ as ordinary (non-destroyed) beans might be.
You would say “too much mash potato” rather than “too many mash potatoes”, and the consistency is similar
Difference is with “refried beans” the countable noun is plural (“refried beanS” vs “mash potato”).
Saying “too much refried bean” sounds a bit more natural.
I would have said “mashed potato” for your first example.
This is literally the first time I’ve ever heard mashed potato be singular. My phone even tried to make it plural.
Probably one of those regional variations that would look interesting overlaid on a map…
Depends whether you consider the noun countable or not. Too many peas, too much mashed potato. It’s purely semantics, I think we can consider refried beans an edge case.
It depends on whether you’re referring to individual refried beans or the dish ‘refried beans’ as a whole.
If it’s the former, it would be ‘too many’ (individual) refried beans.
If it is the latter, it would be ‘too much’ (of) refried beans… Unless you had multiple servings, in which case it would be ‘too many’ (servings of) refried beans.
That is my opinion: as such it is subject to change should further information come to light.
you just discovered why we say ‘traffic’ and not ‘there were many trafficks on my way in this morning’.
(It’s also why ‘experiences’ and ‘emails’ is very often wrong if we followed established rules like in the former instead of gleefully making up the very exceptions we then curse, like in the latter case.)
“Too many refried beans”
“Too much refried bean”Same for scrambled eggs.
“Too many scrambled eggs”
“Too much scrambled egg”Same question, but mashed potatoes.
I would think that would be “too much” because all the potatoes don’t matter at that point, it’s one entity. There are no more individual potatoes, we are
Borgmashed potatoes!I would instinctively go for “too much mashed potato” rather than potatoes plural, even if I would describe it as mashed potatoes in other contexts
You would use too much, since refried beans is an uncountable noun. You have to add a unit to it to make it countable.
You would say “there’s too much refried beans on my plate, and too many cans of refried beans in the pantry.”
By adding “cans” to the noun phrase, you’ve made the refried beans countable, you may now use “too many.”
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Beans are countable. We’re talking about refried beans though. It’s a paste. You cant count paste.
It’s like saying “oil.”
You have to give a unit.
What? That is not at all how that works. Beans is the plural of bean, therefore, many is the only correct option.
Talking “refried beans” as a noun phrase, not beans.
Refried beans does not have a plural noun form. You have to give it a unit. “twenty plates of refried beans,” “pounds of refried beans,” etc.
It like oil. You don’t say “top up my car with oils.” If you add more than you’re supposed to, you put in too much, not too many.
I think you’re just going to have to call it “too much refried bean paste”
Do you own too much pairs of jeans or too many pairs of jeans?
But you can count how many pairs of jeans someone has.
Well, if they are neatly hung and countable, I have too many. If they are in a wash basin dissolved in acid (akin to refried beans), then maybe I have too much?
Too much what? The point I was making was a singular plural unit, just like an amount of (singular) refried (plural) beans.
Too many refried beans.
Since refried beans is not countable, I vote for “too much”.
Example:
- I’m gassy because I had too much refried beans
- I am gassy because I had too many burritos
Or like someone else suggested, make the noun singular and call them “refried bean paste”. This will probably raise more eyebrows than much/many confusion, though.
“Scrambled eggs” is kind of similar. You could say, “I had too many scrambled eggs” or, “I had too much scrambled egg.”
So I think the correct version is:
“I had too much refried bean.”
It seems like the problem goes away if you add a “the.” I had too much of the refried beans.
Your point is fair, but I respectfully disagree. “Beans” being plural makes me want to use “many.” “I had too many of the refried beans” parses fine for me.
Counter question:
Would you also use “many” for mashed potatoes, since potatoes is plural?
I don’t think I’ve ever been asked to quantify mashed potatoes in such a way, but after reflecting for a moment, yes. Thank you for an interesting question.
No such thing. You can never have enough.
Mmmmmmm… Beans
I’ve eaten too many corn.
Corn(s)
Nah, you’re alright; you just had too much maize.
“Excess beanage.”
NGL… I kinda want to tell someone to reduce their beanage without any context, and walk away.
I think it depends on if you view beans as individual beans or not.
