Should I Use Number or Amount?

It all started with an Instagram ad. Yeah, you read that right. It’s actually a pretty funny mug, too (painfully true: just the way I like ’em). Then, I saw, “amount of rodeos.” And an article about whether to use “number” or “amount” was born.

That’s the mug in all it’s glory. It might’ve been mine, too, except for one itty, bitty problem. It should be “number of rodeos.” How do I know? Well, here’s the secret.

Use “Number” If…

…you can put a number in front of the word, and it’ll make sense. In this case, “rodeos.” 4 rodeos. Yep. That makes sense.

That means the word is countable. They’re literally called “countable nouns,” and, yes, that just means you can put a number in front of it. Well, I guess it also means you use “number.” But that’s the most useful part of the designation.

Too long: don’t read – It should say, “Seems like a very low number of rodeos” because “4 rodeos” makes sense.

Use “Amount” If…

…you can’t put a number in front of the word (the object of the preposition) and use it so that it makes sense. Here are some non-countable nouns:

• Furniture
• Milk
• Money

Anything you have to use something like “pieces of” or “gallons of” or “bags of” in front of. You can’t say, “4 furniture.” Not unless you want to confuse people. You have to say, “4 pieces of furniture” or “4 chairs” if you want it to make sense.

Come to think of it, if there isn’t a singular and plural version of the world, it’s not countable. How can you say there are 4 of something if there’s no plural version of the word?

In that scenario, use “amount.” Such as, “He had an incredibly large amount of furniture packed in the truck.”

In Summary: Save Money by Knowing Grammar

It works pretty well. I have no trouble resisting that mug even though I find it amusing and appropriate (Being an adult is hard, people!). But deliberately buying a mug that breaks the countable versus uncountable noun rule? Nah. Can’t do it.

I’ve saved a surpising amount of money (See what I did there?) on products with a specific Tolkien quote, too (You forgot the “those.” *twitch*). And any number of products with direct address. If they miss that comma, they can’t have my money.

That’s a reason for learning English rules that I never considered. “You’ll save money!” But only in large amounts, never in large number. 😉