Mucho, Poco, Bastante, Demasiado | Spanish (Latin America) Grammar

Mucho, poco, bastante, and demasiado are the four core quantifiers in Spanish. They're the words you reach for when you need to say a lot, little, enough, or too much — and together they cover most of the "how much?" vocabulary you'll need every day. As determiners they agree with the noun; as adverbs (modifying verbs) they stay invariable.

Mucho — A Lot, Many

Masc. sing.	Fem. sing.	Masc. pl.	Fem. pl.
mucho	mucha	muchos	muchas

Hay mucha gente en el parque.

There are a lot of people in the park.

Tengo muchos amigos en Chile.

I have many friends in Chile.

As an adverb (modifying a verb, adjective or other adverb), mucho is invariable — it never changes to mucha.

Me gusta mucho esta canción.

I like this song a lot.

Poco — Little, Few

Masc. sing.	Fem. sing.	Masc. pl.	Fem. pl.
poco	poca	pocos	pocas

Poco expresses shortage: poca agua (little water), pocos estudiantes (few students).

Tengo poco tiempo para hablar ahora.

I have little time to talk right now.

Pocas personas saben la verdad.

Few people know the truth.

Un Poco de — A Little

To say a little in a positive sense (a small amount of something good), use un poco de. This is different from just poco, which leans negative (not enough).

¿Me das un poco de agua, por favor?

Will you give me a little water, please?

Compare tengo poco tiempo (I have little time, not much) with tengo un poco de tiempo (I have a bit of time, enough). The nuance matters.

Bastante — Enough, Quite a Lot

Singular (m. & f.)	Plural (m. & f.)
bastante	bastantes

Bastante only changes for number, not gender. It means enough — and, more often in Latin America, quite a lot, fairly much.

Tengo bastante dinero para el viaje.

I have enough money for the trip.

Había bastantes personas en la reunión.

There were quite a lot of people at the meeting.

As an adverb, bastante means quite, rather: Estoy bastante cansado (I'm quite tired).

Demasiado — Too Much, Too Many

Masc. sing.	Fem. sing.	Masc. pl.	Fem. pl.
demasiado	demasiada	demasiados	demasiadas

Demasiado carries the sense of excessive — more than you'd want.

Hay demasiado ruido aquí.

There's too much noise here.

Comí demasiadas galletas.

I ate too many cookies.

As an adverb (modifying verb or adjective), it's invariable:

Hablas demasiado rápido.

You speak too fast.

Agreement in a Nutshell

Word	Changes for gender?	Changes for number?
mucho	yes	yes
poco	yes	yes
bastante	no	yes
demasiado	yes	yes

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Don't confuse mucho (a lot) with muy (very). Muy modifies adjectives and adverbs (muy inteligente), while mucho modifies verbs and nouns (come mucho, mucho trabajo). Saying muy cansado is right; mucho cansado is wrong.

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In Latin America, bastante is often used where English would say pretty or quite — está bastante bien = it's pretty good. It's slightly stronger than algo and slightly weaker than muy.

These four quantifiers show up in nearly every Spanish sentence. Practice them with both countable nouns (muchos libros) and uncountable nouns (mucha agua) so the agreement becomes automatic.