Question

为什么a great many people 这种说法是对的 a great many of the people也是对的

为什么a great many people 这种说法是对的 a great many of the people也是对的
能否讲得详细点

Answer 1

A great many people意思就是说：很多人。
A great many of the people意思是：这些人之中的很多个
A great many其实你可以用many代替啊。这样句子就变成， many people 和many of the people.
Many people很显然就是“很多人”的意思。而many of the people就是“这些人之中的很多个人”
Many people are workers.很多人是工人。
Many of the people are workers.这些人之中的很多个都是工人。
就是这点不同。

Answer 2

“许多人”跟“人们中有许多”自然是一个意思。两个都没问题。

a great many people这个表达我们都很熟悉了就不说啦。a great many of the people指的是具体语境下的群体之中的许多人。我们要说a great many people是泛指许多人，而要说a great many of the people中用了冠词"the",则明显是一种针对特定某一群体的特指，范围更具体。