Madam, - I write this to point out the frequent misuse of the quantitative adjectives "amount of" and "number of" commonly heard on the national airwaves and in news reports. "Amount of" is used to refer to uncountable nouns such as rubbish, corruption and dissatisfaction to name but a few of the relevant ones. "Number of" is generally used for countable nouns e.g. bins, houses, tribunals and perjury charges. The most frequent mistake is in referring to the noun "people". A clear example of the correct usage of both adjectives would be: "The amount of trouble the current government is in is evident from the level of dissatisfaction shown by a large number of Irish people." - Yours, etc.
JANE COFFEY, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4