たくさん vs. 多く vs. 多い when used on verbs?

Question

I'm familiar with the concept of how たくさん、多く、and 多い are used in relation to nouns (多くの人、人が多い、etc.) but I'm still unfamiliar with how you can say the expression "a lot of [verb]". I know, for example, たくさん食べる means "a lot of eating," but I'm unsure if you need to distinguish 多く and 多い when it comes to verbs.

In addition, here's what I know; tell me if I got anything wrong.

多く and 多い can carry an additional meaning of "too much." たくさん doesn't.

While there's a grammatical distinction between 多く and 多い, たくさん doesn't need this.

Thanks!

Answer 1

At first, basic concept about some words which you posted is below.

1. "多く" and "たくさん" are adverbs, and these words are same meaning.
2. "多い" is adjective.

Based on these, I share you some example sentences below.

1. (多く)たくさん + 食べる [adverb + verb]
2. (多く)たくさん + 飲む [adverb + verb]
3. 車が + 多い [subject + adjective]
4. 人が + 多い [subject + adjective]

Hope it helps.

Answer 2

In addition to htcoelho's link, I'd like to point out that たくさん doesn't mean something is common, I mean, for example, you can say 多くの人はスマートフォンを使っている for "many people use smartphones" meaning that use of smartphones is common. But you can't say たくさんの人は… in that meaning. (If it meant "a person who has a lot of something uses a smartphone", it would be fine.)

(Though this is complicated and may be confusing) That said, when you reconstruct it through spectrum of neutral description, you can say たくさんの人が…使っている. Being common is now regarded as largeness of amount in a moment that's cut out by observation. In addition, you can say こんにちでは、たくさんの人が…, for some reason.

Edit: たくさん can mean "too much" too. e.g. もう たくさんだ！ It's enough!

Answer 3

First of all, I apologize for posting this as an answer, since I still don't have enough reputation to post it as comment.

I might be forgetting something but from what I remember, たくさん is more about intensity (but can also be about quantity depending on the context), while 多い and 多く are more about quantity.

this answer might provide a better explanation