instruction:
Generate the answer for a given question. The question requires common knowledge of English. Make sure that the answer is in detail, long, consistent with the context, and requires general knowledge of English. To be less repetitive, please vary your language for each question. Give a proper explanation to answer, and if necessary, provide the definition of various terms. And conclude your answer if it's long. If you have used other resources (e.g., Merriam Webster's.) to answer the question, include citations in your answer. You don't need to paraphrase the context of your resources, but make sure that your answer is consistent and complete.
question:
This year there were: many more people much more people Alternatively: many fewer people much fewer people Which is considered better English?.
answer:
Both much and many can be used, but which is appropriate depends on whether the noun they're referring to is countable or not. With countable nouns, use many more or many fewer: I had many more bananas than Tom. I had many fewer nickels than Alice. With uncountable nouns, use much more or much less How much more fiber does a banana have than an apple? How much less water does this process use?


question:
How can I explain to people that the phrase off of is grammatically incorrect? I've heard this phrase used a lot, especially by Americans (though they aren't the only ones). In my understanding, off of should usually be replaced by off, as in, I took the book off the shelf as opposed to I took the book off of the shelf Am I wrong? Or is there perhaps some simple way I can explain this to most people?.
answer:
I don't know how you can explain to people in general that it's grammatically incorrect, but here is one idea: when you go to a James Brown tribute concert and the singer says 'Get up offa that thing' what you could do is to trounce the security guards, climb on to the stage, pounce onto the singer, grab the microphone and say 'In fact you should be saying not 'get up offa that thing' but 'get up off that thing' since 'offa' is grammatically incorrect.' I'm sure everyone will thank you for your grammatical corrections. Being serious for a moment though, it's very difficult to decide what is or is not 'grammatically correct'. E.g. in the UK we say 'outside my house' but US people often say 'outside of my house'. How can you actually decide which of these two is grammatically correct? Unfortunately it's not possible since English grammar is not a science like physics but merely a description of what people actually do, and that has changed very significantly over the years. If I was teaching someone English I would definitely say 'off' is correct and 'off of' is wrong, but this kind of decision is based on intuition, based on the usages of educated native speakers.


question:
Is it correct to say 'Wish you a happy weekend' or should I say 'Wishing you a happy weekend'?.
answer:

Neither Wishing you a happy weekend nor Wish you a happy weekend would be used in normal conversation. As others have noted, spoken parting platitudes at the end of a week are normally started with have, such as: Have a good weekend Have a nice weekend etc. Change the adjective to be what you think most appropriate for the situation. On the other hand, if you are signing off some correspondence, such as an email, then Wishing you a happy weekend is more appropriate. Similar constructions include Wishing you a happy birthday Wishing you a merry Christmas Wishing you well To use *Wish you a happy weekend you need to add I to make the sentence grammatical. i.e. I wish you a happy weekend. A notable exception to this is the common postcard sign off Wish you were here where it is idiomatic to leave out the I.