What's the difference between HOW MUCH & MANY?

HOW MUCH is for NON-COUNTABLE Nouns.

How much is always followed by a non-countable noun.  What's that?...you may ask. Well, it's a noun that can't be counted.  For example, can you count the air?  Can you count water?  Nope! These are non-countable nouns.

Remember: Non-countable nouns never take on an 's' at the end.

Ex.
airs
waters
laughters
homeworks
moneys

Ex.
How much money do you have?
How much time will you need to finish?
I don't have much water.  Can I have some of yours?
Lisbon does not have much public transportation.
How much fruit is left?

HOW MANY is for COUNTABLE Nouns.

Many is used for countable nouns, or nouns that you count. Things like chairs, apples, pencils and people can all be counted.  But remember, countable nouns don't have to be objects.  A person can have 10 ideas or 1 idea, right? 

So another way of knowing is that if you can add an 's' to the word, it's countable. 

Ex. 

ideas

cars

projects

assignments
pencils

*People is an exception. We don't say peoples. We would say 10 people or 10 persons. The word peoples is actually a word, but it is used to describe a group or race of people but only in advanced English. 

Ex.

How many people for dinner tonight?

How many chairs are there in the classroom?

I don't have many students today because they are sick.

She doesn't have many ideas about the project. 

How many assignments do we have this week?

GHOTI=FISH? Pronunciation in English is crazy!

So how in the world could GHOTI be pronounced FISH in English?

Well let's take a look at GH.  In English this sound used to be represented as X, coming from Gaelic.  For example, in all these words, the GH sound is an F sound:

laugh

cough

rough

tough

The second sound, O, in English, is at times pronounced as an I.  This is the only example I can think of in English where an O is  pronounced as an I.  

women

Now let's take a look at TI. This sound is like SH in English, and there are many examples of this because English has a ton of words ending in TION:

transportation

cautious

occupation

So to summarize:

GH (F) O (I) TI (SH)

Now we can see that English is NOT a phonetic language (a language in which letters represent the same sounds every time.)

10 CH- words (pronounced SH) that come from French.

Portuguese speakers have trouble pronouncing the CH phoneme as in "chair".  A Portuguese speaker will usually pronounce it "SHair."  Now, there DO exist words with the CH phoneme that are actually pronounced SH.  These words came to English through French.

To all my Portuguese speakers, feel free to say "SH" with this list of words!

1. chef  (cook)
2. chauffeur (driver)
3. chalet (big ski cabin)
4. chandelier (ornate lighting fixture)
5. chic (cool)
6. cliché (trite or banal saying)
7. crochet (similar to knitting)
8. charlatan (somebody who is a fake)
9. champagne (We all know what champagne is, right?)
10. machine (We all know this one too...)

There are many more words that entered the English language via French when William the Conqueror, the first Norman king of England gained control of the British Isles. 

What's the difference between AMERICAN and BRITISH spelling?

This is not a quick question to answer, but once looking at it in terms of groups of words, it is not so hard.  There are two groups of words: Latin-derived and Greek-derived.  Keep in mind the abbreviations used here:

Am.E=American English 
Br.E=British English

Latin-derived Words

Humor or Humour?

Humor is American spelling while humour is British. Here are more examples...

Am.E=humor, neighbor, behavior, color, rumor, honor, flavor
Br.E=humour, neighbour, behaviour, colour, rumour, honour, flavour

Center or Centre?

Americans use the suffix "er" while the Brits use "re".

Am.E=center, theater, luster, somber, liter, meter, fiber

Br.E=centre, theatre, lustre, sombre, litre, metre, fibre

Greek-derived Words

Realize or Realise?

Americans use the "ize" suffix while their British counterparts use the "ise" ending. 

Am.E=realize, organize, recognize, apologize, modernize, colonize
Br.E=realise, organise, recognise, aplogise, modernise, colonise

Analyze or Analyse?

Americans use the "yze" suffix while their British use the "yse" suffix, a reverse of above.

Am.E=analyze, paralyze, catalyze

Br.E=analyse, paralyse, catalyse