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Tengo un montón de trabajo.

Tengo un montón de trabajo.
I have a ton of work.
From Lesson 72:Adverbs of quantity (demasiado, bastante)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about Tengo un montón de trabajo.

Is un montón de a quantity word like bastante or demasiado?
It expresses a large quantity, but grammatically, montón is actually a noun meaning a heap or a pile. In everyday Spanish, un montón de is a very common phrase used exactly like a ton of or a bunch of in English.
Why do we need de here when we don't use it with words like bastante?
Because un montón is a noun, it needs the preposition de (of) to connect it to the thing you are measuring, literally translating to a pile of work. Words like bastante (enough/quite a bit) act directly as adjectives describing the noun, so they do not need de: bastante trabajo.
If I want to say I have a ton of a feminine word, like tarea (homework), does the phrase change to feminine?
No, it never changes! Because un montón is its own masculine noun (a pile), it stays exactly the same no matter what comes after it. You would say un montón de tarea.
Can I use un montón de with plural words too?
Yes, absolutely! Just like in English, you can have a ton of a singular, uncountable thing like work (un montón de trabajo) or a ton of plural, countable things like friends (un montón de amigos).

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