Grammar choices

Amount vs. Number

Number is for things you can count one by one, like people, cars or apples. Amount is for things you measure but do not count, like water, sand or patience. A large number of guests ate a huge amount of food.

Word	Part of speech	Meaning
amount	noun	a quantity of something that is measured as a mass rather than counted one by one
amount	verb	to add up to a total, or to be the same as, used with to
number	noun	a count of people or things that can be separated and counted

Amount

noun: a quantity of something that is measured as a mass rather than counted one by one

It takes a surprising amount of time to clean a fish tank.
Add a small amount of lemon juice to the sauce.

verb: to add up to a total, or to be the same as, used with to

Our grocery bills amount to about two hundred dollars a week.
His apology amounted to a short text message.

Number

noun: a count of people or things that can be separated and counted

A number of students asked for more time on the project.
The number of bikes in the city has doubled since 2015.

How to remember the difference

Ask how many or how much. How many goes with number (how many chairs). How much goes with amount (how much rice). It is the same split as fewer and less.

Good to know

In casual speech, amount is often used with countable nouns (a large amount of people), but careful writers avoid it. With a number of, the verb is usually plural (a number of fans were waiting); with the number of, it is singular (the number of fans is growing).

Spot the mistake

A large ~~amount~~ number of people came to the opening night.
Correct: A large number of people came to the opening night.
We were surprised by the ~~amount~~ number of emails after the sale.
Correct: We were surprised by the number of emails after the sale.

Check yourself

Pick the word that fits each sentence.

1. A small of children signed up for the chess club.

2. The plant needs only a tiny of water each week.