What’s the difference between amount and number?

Number can only be used for countable nouns, but amount can be used for either. "I've never seen this amount of people" is correct, although "I've never seen this number of people" sounds more natural.

The word I’d use here is “quantity” paired with a descriptive adjective. For example, you could have a large quantity of people or a small quantity of water.

Amount is a number, related to a mathematical equation. ( how many apples do you have? The amount of apples I have is 12) The amount is a number, but numbers don’t always mean the amount. (What is you address? I live at 12 main st. Apartment number 3.)

"Amount" is a quantity, and "number" is more numb.

when you can count the noun you use "number" for example: number of people, number of pens, number of children. But for noun you cannot count you use "amount" for example: amount of water (number of water is incorrect), amount of sunlight, amount of fatigue.

I don't know about the formalized rules, but in my mind "amount" is more associated with money while "number" is more generic.

Despite the rule, I hear and say "amount" for countable things pretty frequently in informal contexts.

I would think number is digits and amount can be anything sizable.

The words “amount” and “number” both refer to quantities, but they are used in different contexts depending on whether you’re talking about things that can be counted or measured. - **Amount** is used when referring to **unquantifiable or mass nouns**—things that can’t be counted individually. For example: - “The **amount** of water in the glass.” - “The **amount** of money needed.” - **Number** is used when referring to **countable nouns**—things that can be counted individually. For example: - “The **number** of books on the shelf.” - “The **number** of students in the class.” In short, use “amount” for things you measure (like liquids, money, or air) and “number” for things you count (like people, items, or animals).

Amount is for singular nouns; Number is for plural. Amount of butter vs. number of cups of flour.

I never realized it till now, but I use amount with countable nouns to subtly emphasize that the number is really big (uncountable). “The amount of people who dont clean up after themselves here is disgusting”. “After the amount of gazes she’s been giving you, you’d be a fool not to go say hi” Number works in these cases, but amount still feels natural to me. I’d never interchange many for much for the same effect. That sounds wrong to me.

One

A mate of mine and I have a running joke of saying „a huge amount of brown dogs“

Amount and number are equivalent for things with discreet units, amount of bags, number of bags, same thing, both make sense. The difference comes when things don't have discreet units. Number of waters? Nonsense unless you mean bottles of water. Amount of water? Makes perfect sense.

Not even natives know the difference, so why would care. Before saying that natives know the difference, no they don’t. I work in payroll and when we need to create a wage type is a war, because nobody knows the difference. But we still need this info to make the payroll processing si i have to explain it over and over and over again.

The *number* of times I've wondered this induces a huge *amount* of confusion in me.

"Amount" can be used for both, although it is more common for uncountable nouns. You can definitely say "amount of attempts" though - this treats the attempts by bundling them all together, a little bit like a non-countable quantity.

Not quite, but close. While "number" is specific to things which can be enumerated, "amount" is very generic, and to pretty much any volume or quantity of any type of material or object, or even abstract things. "What amount of corruption should we tolerate?" - abstract "What amount of money did the burglars take?" - money is countable, "number of money" is incorrect. "What amount of concrete should go in each fence post?" - material not enumerable "The number shown on the sign is the maximum amount of people permitted by the fire code." - "amount" can essentially be synonymous with "quantity", circumstantially.

Yeah, you’ve got it right :) **"**Amount**"** is for uncountable nouns (e.g., "an amount of water/money/work"). **"**Number**"** is for countable nouns (e.g., "a number of people/attempts/gazes"). It follows the same rule as "much" (uncountable) and "many" (countable). And yes, it's never "amount of people/attempts/gazes" — only "number" for those. For a word that works for both, you can use **"**quantity**"** in formal contexts (e.g., "the quantity of water" or "the quantity of mistakes"). But in everyday English, "a lot of", "plenty of", or "some" work fine :)

amount can be used for either