Polish pronunciation and English quantifier
1. I was reading a book recently in which a character had a Polish grandmother that she called "Babcia." Is this an actual Polish word/nickname for grandmother? If so, how is it pronounced? My guesses are BAB-sha or bab-SEE-a, but I'm really not sure.
2. I'm an ESL teacher trying to plan a lesson on food labels. The textbook I'm using gives the sentences "There are many calories in the cookies," "Are there many calories?" and "Is there much calcium?" as examples. Obviously there's nothing grammatically wrong with those, but I'd never say it that way--I'd replace them all with "a lot of" instead because it feels more natural. If you're a native speaker of English, what do you think? Is this just a quirk of mine (native speaker--DC area) or do you agree that "a lot of" sounds better?
Thanks for any help you all can give me!
2. I'm an ESL teacher trying to plan a lesson on food labels. The textbook I'm using gives the sentences "There are many calories in the cookies," "Are there many calories?" and "Is there much calcium?" as examples. Obviously there's nothing grammatically wrong with those, but I'd never say it that way--I'd replace them all with "a lot of" instead because it feels more natural. If you're a native speaker of English, what do you think? Is this just a quirk of mine (native speaker--DC area) or do you agree that "a lot of" sounds better?
Thanks for any help you all can give me!