Tag Archive - amount

Mass Nouns and Count Nouns

Amount  and number (the nouns, not the verbs) often get misused. Amount  is a mass noun and you use it when talking about things you can’t count: “There is a large amount of smog.” Number is used, well, for things you can number, so that should help you remember the rule. “I filed a number of lawsuits.”

I could say I see “a huge number of instances in which writers misuse the word amount, and a large amount of misunderstanding surrounding these two words.”