This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 579.
Do you think this episode is a fair amount of fun?
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Hello, Michelle.
How are you?
Hi, Aubrey.
I am good.
Excited to record with you today.
How are you?
I'm great.
It's a beautiful day here in Arizona.
Actually it's getting extremely warm, but I just try to stay positive and I'm just going to call it a beautiful day.
But I have a question for you about your emails.
How many emails do you usually receive a day?
Ooh, that's a good question.
Yeah, I definitely get a fair amount of emails every day.
Usually from you know usually work emails or from my kids' schools or some extracurricular activity or camp or things like that.
I don't know about you, but before texting, I got so many more emails.
And now often I'll get a text instead that once upon a time would have been an email.
Yeah.
I like how you said that, once upon a time.
Once upon a time.
But so I'm glad you asked me that, because today we're answering a listener question about this phrase because, if you noticed, I said a fair amount of emails, right?
So this question today is from Fiona Wang, 1828, and it's from YouTube.
I can read the question and then we're going to answer it.
So thank you for that question.
So Fiona says, Hi there.
Thanks for another awesome episode.
I noticed that Lindsay said a fair amount of pictures.
When I was in school, I learned that a fair amount of is usually used with uncountable nouns, while a fair number of is used with countable nouns.
Did I misunderstand this rule or is this something native speakers sometimes say in casual speech?
Could you please clarify this?
I would really appreciate it.
Also, if possible, could you share some advice on how native speakers naturally describe quantities or numbers in everyday English?
Thank you.
Wow.
What a good question.
Yes.
Yes.
Thank you, Fiona.
Thank you for listening and for this amazing question.
This is a great observation.
We're conflating a couple things and I'm so excited to dive into this.
A very common error.
Yeah, definitely.
So before we dive in, guys, of course, as always, hit the follow button.
But also, we have some poll results to share, don't we?
Yes.
A recent Spotify poll was, have you ever felt that your skills were underutilized at work?
This is from episode 548, does your English have untapped potential?
And And we were split here.
50% of the listeners that responded said yes, and 50% said no.
So I'm really glad for everyone that said no.
I'm sorry for everyone that said yes.
And I am right there with you.
That has happened to me at past jobs where I feel underutilized.
I'm like I could be doing so much more.
Yeah yeah, that's a.
That's a frustrating thing, um to deal with so um, but yeah, very interesting and a true 50 50 split.
Guys stay at the end.
We'll have a new potify potify, A new Spotify poll.
Yes.
Thank you for responding.
Everyone who answers these polls.
You can listen in Spotify and answer the poll, or you can just go to Spotify and answer the poll there.
It's really fun to see what you guys think about some of the things we talk about.
Yeah, exactly.
And again, hit follow or subscribe wherever you're listening to us.
So, for starters, Fiona, you did not misunderstand.
This is just where textbook English and conversational English differ.
So, what do you think about this, Aubrey?
Yeah, this is interesting.
So, I can understand what you've seen in a textbook.
This is true for just by itself a number of and… quantity of, right?
We do use a number of for countable things, right?
A number of apples, but a large quantity of rice something I wouldn't count flour something I wouldn't count.
That is accurate.
But this is a chunk that works a little differently when we say a fair amount of or a fair number of.
Right.
And again, both phrases mean more than a little, but not extreme.
So when I say a fair amount of emails, you know I'm saying I get a bunch, but it's not like they're shooting at me and I can't get away and I'm drowning in them.
So, but again technically, the rule is a fair amount of plus an uncountable noun time work, traffic a fair number of countable nouns emails meetings, clients.
But what about in real life, Aubrey?
Yeah, people don't follow these rules.
We bend rules all the time, especially one like this that we don't take that seriously.
And again, this is a chunk, right?
A fair amount of, a fair number of.
We sort of separate it from that rule that often we do follow a little closer for just number of rules and quantity of.
But even those, honestly, a lot of native speakers don't always use correctly.
I don't always use them correctly.
We like to bend the rules in English sometimes.
Sometimes people just don't know the rules.
That too.
Yeah, it's not necessary.
They're not even trying to bend the rules.
They just they can't bend them because they might not know them.
Yeah, if you haven't studied grammar.
And this is also a regional dialect mistake in air quotes.
In a lot of regions they're just interchanging number and amount.
Don't care.
They hear it this way all the time.
And they might one day.
You know they go somewhere and someone's like.
I think you should say number instead of quantity.
And they're going to be shocked.
It'll be like the first time they've ever heard that.
Yeah, exactly.
So, you know, especially in casual conversation, we'll switch these up.
But when should you use a fair amount of, Aubrey?
Yeah, this is when you want to sound natural, casual, slightly softer, right?
It means like a decent amount, but it's not dramatic at all.
So in meetings... casual updates, spoken conversations.
We use this really often.
So something like, I'm managing a fair amount of clients lately.
Yes.
Or we made a fair amount of progress this week.
It's positive, right?
It's not dramatic.
You're not over-exaggerating, but it's also not negative.
It means like you did pretty well.
Yeah.
Yes, exactly.
So what about a fair number of Yeah.
So this is more when you want to be precise or a little more formal, maybe in written reports, presentations or structured meetings.
You might write, we've received a fair number of applications this quarter.
And if you were to say this to someone, you might just say a lot of, but when we're writing it or when we're trying to up-level our language, we might say this
Right.
Or there are a fair number of issues we need to address before the big launch.
So but let's see how both sound in the same sentence.
So here we go.
I have a fair number of meetings scheduled this week.
So this is correct, but how does it sound to you, Aubrey?
Yeah, it does sound quite formal because this is something that would be conversational to say this to someone or to email it to someone.
That's kind of a casual thing to say to someone.
It's not something that would be in like a written report.
It sounds a bit off to me.
It sounds a bit too formal for the types of situations that you would say this in.
So that's so interesting because it is correct.
But let's try the other one.
I have a fair amount of meetings scheduled this week.
How does this sound sound?
Yeah, it definitely sounds more natural for speech, right?
I have a fair amount of meetings.
I would say this to someone.
Yeah, really interesting stuff.
So, okay, we're gonna get to the second part of the listener's question in just a second.
All right.
So the listener also asked how native speakers naturally describe quantities or numbers in everyday English.
So...
The first one could be a lot of, right?
So that's a large quantity.
So this one is used in casual conversations.
It sounds pretty neutral, vague or negative or emotional depending on the context.
So for example, we have a lot of projects in the works or we have a lot of work to do this week.
How do you think it sounds compared to a fair amount of?
It's stronger.
It's definitely stronger than a fair amount of, right?
You know, if you say like we received a lot of complaints, that sort of sounds either emotional or negative.
A fair amount of complaints, I'm kind of softening it and trying to remove that.
A lot of feels like a lot.
Yeah, so fair amounts, a little bit more professional, more objective.
You have things under control, everything's fine, but we do need to address these complaints, right?
What's the next one, Aubrey?
Yeah, quite a few with countable nouns.
So this means more than expected. a noticeable number.
It's, you know, for informal to semi-formal professional conversations.
It does make the amount sound slightly surprising, but still pretty neutral.
Right.
Yeah.
I mean, it definitely sounds more surprising than a fair amount of.
So, for example, we've had quite a few client requests this week, or there are quite a few issues we need to review.
Often that's what it does to add quite.
It might perk your ears up a little bit more.
Right.
It was quite interesting that quite often adds a little implication that you were surprised by it.
And what's one more, Aubrey? a decent amount of.
This means a solid, satisfactory amount.
I say this a lot, decent, a decent amount of.
This follows the same rules for countable and uncountable nouns.
And it shows that the amount is positive or acceptable.
Right.
And it sounds slightly more positive than a fair amount.
So, for example, we made a decent amount of progress today, or there's a decent amount of interest from clients.
So I would say, yeah, that it just it's a little bit more positive.
It's a little bit more optimistic.
And all of these are perfect for work and aren't super informal.
We have even more casual ways that we say this in daily conversations like tons.
Yeah.
I saw tons of, you know, birds at the park.
This is less common for work because it's slang.
It's more casual.
So all of these that we're teaching today are perfect for work situations.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
So should we do a role play?
Let's do it.
You and I work at a tech company here.
We're having a weekly check in about an app that we are working on.
I'll start us out.
Okay.
So how did things go with the client feedback this week?
Oh, we got a lot of feedback, especially right after the update.
It was a bit overwhelming at first.
Yeah, that makes sense.
Were there any major issues?
There were quite a few bugs reported, mostly small things, but they added up.
Got it.
How's the team handling everything now?
Well, there's been a fair amount of meetings to make sure everything is on track.
And now we're doing pretty well.
We've made a decent amount of progress fixing the issues.
That's great.
Happy to hear it.
All right.
This is so interesting.
I'm hoping you're hearing sort of the tone, the implication in the different ways that we would say this.
It's not just about having variety here.
There is nuance in slightly different meaning depending on which one you're choosing.
There definitely is.
So the first thing was you said, how did things go?
And I said, we got a lot of feedback, especially right after the update.
This is a noticeable amount, right?
Very different than if we said a fair amount would be like.
Yeah, we're not quite as happy if we got a fair amount of feedback.
A lot of really means a large quantity.
We're happy with that amount.
And then you said there were quite a few bugs reported.
So remember that quite signals a little bit of surprise.
So probably more bugs than you expected.
Yeah.
And then I said, well, there's been a fair amount of meetings to make sure everything is on track.
Okay, so a fair amount.
That's what we've been really talking about.
It's slightly more casual.
It's not dramatic, slightly softer.
It's interesting.
This statement and this role play is kind of making me realize that we sometimes use this one sarcastically.
So be careful with the tone.
If you had had tons of meetings, hundreds of meetings, and someone said this and they're like well, there's been a fair amount of meetings.
What they mean is there been a lot of meetings, but the tone is different.
And you know from context.
If you know there have been a lot of meetings and someone says a fair amount but changes their tone to that sort of sarcastic tone, then you know and that is possible.
I think I do this.
I feel like I use this sarcastically sometimes.
Yeah, I could definitely hear that for sure.
And then I said, we've made a decent amount of progress fixing the issues.
So again, a decent, that's more satisfactory.
It's a more positive sounding thing than fair.
Yeah, still maybe nothing to write home about.
We're not writing a lot of we're not exaggerating here, but better than a fair amount.
Yeah, yep, for sure.
So Aubrey, we have a Spotify poll.
Would you like to?
What is it?
Yes.
We want to make sure you guys go over to Spotify and answer this poll.
We are curious about how many emails do you receive each day?
Your options will be less than 25, 25 to 50, 50 to 75, or more than 75.
So I'm very curious.
Mine is less than 25.
I feel like sometimes 25 to 50, but that's rare.
And if so, half of them are spam.
Right.
I get a lot of spam, but I'm too lazy to go through and say, don't send.
I do that sometimes unsubscribe to a few.
It doesn't seem to help.
Yeah, sometimes yes, sometimes yes, sometimes no.
All right, guys, check out episode 576 of the Business English podcast.
That was Don't Make Your English an Oversight.
Listen in today.
All right.
Take away.
Take away, Aubrey.
What do you think?
This is important because of the nuance.
You want to be accurate when you're sharing quantities.
It's not so much about the grammar.
Make sure to use number quantity here only with uncountable nouns.
I wouldn't worry about that so much.
What I would worry about is what is being implied.
Whether you say a lot of a decent amount, a fair amount of, you may give the wrong impression of how much has happened if you accidentally use the wrong one.
Yeah, definitely all right.
Well, that's definitely a great way to leave our listeners today, and thank you again to fiona for that question.
And aubrey, thanks for talking about this with me today.
I've had more than a fair amount of fun with you.
Same you too.
Thanks for joining us today.
We'll see you guys next time.
All right bye.
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