An amount of something is how much of it you have, need, or get.
- ...the amount of salt lost in sweat.
- I was horrified by the amount of work I had to do.
You can talk about a large amount or a small amount. You do not talk about a 'big amount' or a 'little amount'.
使用large amount或者small amount, 不要使用big amount或little amount。
- Use only a small amount of water at first.
- The army gave out only small amounts of food.
- There is no proof that larger amounts will prevent more colds.
When you use amount in the plural, you use plural verb with it. For example, you day 'Large amounts of money were wasted'. You do not say "Large amounts of money was wasted'.
当你使用amount的复数形式，你也要相应使用动词的复数形式
- Increasing amounts of force are necessary.
- Very large amounts of money are required.
WARNING: You do not talk about an 'amount' of things or people. For example, you do not say 'There was an amount of chairs in the room'. You say 'There were a number of chair in the room'. When you use number like this, you use a plural verb with it.
谈论某些事或人的一定数量时，使用a number of，而不是an amount。当你像这样使用'number'的时候，要和动词复数一起使用。
A number of provisional bids where received.
A small number of law firms have picked up some major deals.
