Update to Quantities

Just a brief note: in reference to my statements of amounts vs. numbers, the easiest thing to remember is "many" vs. "much". If you would say, "many", as in "many cups of coffee," then you can use "numbers." "Many" can be counted. Manny is a two-bit mook, and Murray is an accountant, and together the two of them can be counted, although one could not say they number many. Murray might number Manny if Manny was going to run in a race or something, but the two of them wouldn't number many.

Confused? Sorry. I'm just injecting some humor.

"Much," on the other hand, is something uncountable. You have "much" coffee. Well, you don't often say that, but you can have "so much coffee." Suffice to say that if you can use "many" then you can use "numbers," and if not, you should use "amounts."

Note that this gets confusing because people ask, "How much?" and expect a number sometimes. They should be asking, "How many?" but we'll give them a pass. Still, if you can say "I have many Xes" where "Xes" is some plural noun, then you have large numbers of Xes, rather than large amounts of X. See, amounts takes singular, numbers takes plural.

The Russians are so much better about this.