What is the difference between number and amount

How do you know when to use each one? Both amount and number are nouns that refer to the quantity of something. Both words can also be used as verbs that mean "to be a certain quantity" or "to add up to. They are used in completely different contexts and, for English speakers, the distinction is very clear.

It is important to learn the difference between amount and number , both as nouns and as verbs, because if you mix them up it's considered quite a basic mistake. When it is a noun , the word amount is used with two types of words.

First, we use amount with things we can't count or do not usually count. For example, we cannot count water, flour, snow or rain, and we do not usually count rice or hair.

For this reason, we describe an amount of water, an amount of flour, an amount of rice, etc. Keep in mind that the concept of counting these things is different from the concept of measuring these things.

We can measure flour, but we cannot say "one flour, two flour, three flour…" This means that flour cannot be counted. Similarly, we cannot count money and time. We can count dollars, euros, pounds, and other types of money, but we cannot say "one money, two money, three money…"Therefore, we speak about an amount of money and an amount of time.

Besides uncountable nouns , amount is used with abstract concepts. We speak about the amount of love people feel for each other, the amount of pride and the amount of frustration, noise, work and other ideas and emotions. Amount can also be a verb. When it is used in this sense, as when it is a noun , amount is followed by an uncountable noun. The meaning of the verb to amount to is "to be a certain amount.

You have probably already noticed that when it is a noun , amount is followed by "of. When used as a noun , the word number refers to a quantity of something that can be counted. Examples of things we can count are people, apples, mobile phones, photographs, jobs and animals.

For this reason, we speak about a number of people, a number of apples, a number of mobile phones, etc. Note that although we speak about an amount of time, we speak about a number of times as in once, twice, three times… This is because "time" can be both a countable and uncountable noun. Sometimes people use the expression " a number of " when they want to avoid being specific about the quantity in question.

In this case, the expression means "some" or "several. English has specific words to use in reference to the quantity of mass and count nouns. Amount and number are two such words. Continue reading to discover the difference between them, and to find out whether you should use number or amount. In this article, I will compare amount vs. I will use each word in an example sentence to illustrate its proper meaning and context.

Then, I will explain a helpful trick to use when deciding whether to choose amount or number for your writing, depending on context. What does amount mean? Amount can be a noun or a verb. As a noun , it refers to the quantity of something. Amount is used with mass nouns. We should use amount for mass nouns such as plasticity but number for count nouns such as events.

The distinction between mass and count nouns is important for several other words, such as less , fewer , many , much , little , and several. The Oxford Dictionaries website provides a nice table depicting when to use all these words. Some words live double lives as both mass nouns and count nouns.

Protein is one that comes up frequently in Cell Press papers. It is likely that the second allele produced small but non-detectable amounts of protein in standard conditions. As expected, we found that RIM knockout removed most of these proteins, although a significant number remained.

In the first case, protein is treated as an uncountable substance, similar to water or wood. In the second case, clearly the individual protein molecules are being counted. The clue in this case is the letter s at the end of proteins. The use of the plural noun signals that we're counting individual proteins.

That wraps up today's grammar tip. She graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with degrees in journalism and biology and intended to enter scientific journalism. She has five young children: one daughter and four sons. Among her many pursuits are backpacking with her family, foraging for wild foods, and creating and eating delicious food.