{"id":582,"date":"2018-09-05T12:05:18","date_gmt":"2018-09-05T02:05:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/?p=582"},"modified":"2019-04-27T12:14:12","modified_gmt":"2019-04-27T02:14:12","slug":"the-difference-between-number-and-amount","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/journal\/notes\/the-difference-between-number-and-amount\/","title":{"rendered":"The difference between number and amount"},"content":{"rendered":"

One thing that both frustrates and delights me about the English language is how certain word rules weave together and rely upon the same basic foundation. As with my previous post on the difference between less and fewer,<\/a> which both depend upon their relation to either mass or count nouns, so too is the case here.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re visiting this site for the first time (welcome!), and have no idea what a mass noun is, let alone its difference to a count noun, allow me to briefly go over the rules below.<\/p>\n

A count noun<\/a> is something you can (of course) count, such as plants, birds, tiles, tyres and thousands of other things. Equally important, though, is that you can identify a single one of those things\u2014you can easily identify a single blanket, for instance. On the other hand, a mass noun is something that cannot be counted, such as gas, knowledge, furniture, joy, fruit and heat. You cannot count a single one of these\u2014ie, there is no such thing as a single joy or a single heat. In order to count these nouns, you would have to introduce some kind of measurement; for instance, a cannister of gas or ounce of knowledge.<\/p>\n

So while the words \u2018number\u2019 and \u2018amount\u2019 both refer to something\u2019s size or value, the words must play by the rules of mass and count nouns. Firstly, the word \u2018number\u2019 must be used with referring to a count noun, due to the fact that\u2014as the word \u2018number\u2019 itself hints\u2014count nouns can be singularly identified. For instance:<\/p>\n

The number<\/strong> of people at the bus stop was more than usual.
\nIt was clear there was some kind of infestation, judging by the number<\/strong> of mouse holes.
\nThe company is looking to close down a number<\/strong> of its stores.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In the above examples, people, mouse holes and stores can all be counted individually; however, when identifying the value of a mass noun, \u2018amount\u2019 must be used.<\/p>\n

The amount<\/strong> of rice you gave me wasn\u2019t enough.
\nA decent amount<\/strong> of exercise is good for the brain and body.
\nThe amount<\/strong> of heat radiating off the car bonnet could fry an egg in seconds.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is another of those common mistakes that people often commit in spoken language. Once you master this rule, you\u2019ll notice just how many of your friends, family and colleagues slip up, even in their writing. Just like with learning \u2018less vs fewer\u2019 and \u2018mass vs count nouns\u2019, however, the \u2018number vs amount\u2019 rule will stick like glue once you\u2019ve got it. Promise!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The amount of one depends upon the number of the other<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":596,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582\/revisions\/596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}