A small quantity of sugar or a little quantity of sugarr

Question

Which is correct... There is a small quantity of sugar... There is a little quantity of sugar... ????Please help me!!!

Avangi · Accepted Answer

They're both correct. "A small quantity" is more natural.

"There's [only] a little bit of sugar" is also natural.

"There's only a little sugar " is common.

Anonymous · Answer

So... Are both correct? Where Can I find a rule about that? Can you help me again?

In this case:

Choice the correct word:

There is A FEW / A LITTLE quantity of sugar in the jar. The correct is A LITTLE QUANTITY OF SUGAR. There are two options A FEW / A LITTLE, but I think it is not natural.

Is this sentece grammatically correct?

Thank you so much.

Dimsumexpress · Answer

Anon,

Here is a few comments regarding your question.

From a naturality stand point, "small quantity of sugar", even though correct, is not something we would say without specific context.

Police has found a small quantity of cocaine in the back truck of the suspect's car. This is fine.

AnonymousThere is A FEW / A LITTLE quantity of sugar in the jar.

With this context, we can simply say " there is a little bit of sugar left in the jar."

Would you like sugar in your coffee? Notice there is no article or quantifier used in the sentence.

Can you loan me some sugar?

Both are ok.

Avangi · Answer

AnonymousThere is A FEW / A LITTLE quantity of sugar in the jar. The correct is A LITTLE QUANTITY OF SUGAR. There are two options A FEW / A LITTLE, but I think it is not natural.

There's nothing wrong with "There is a little quantity of sugar in the jar."
"A small quantity" is more natural.

"There is a few quantity of sugar in the jar" is not "grammatically correct," because "few" is used for countable things.

You can't say "I have three quantities" when describing a single quantity.

You can say, "There are three jars with three quantities of sugar," but it's not exactly common.

You can say, "There are three pounds of sugar in the container," because "pounds" is countable.

On the other hand, "little" and "small" don't work for countables. "I have only a little tickets left." NO!

But you can say, "I have only a small number of tickets left."

Anonymous · Answer

My two cents....

"There is a few quantity of sugar in the jar" is not "grammatically correct," because "few" is used for countable things.

You can't say "I have three quantities" when describing a single quantity. - I agree

You can say, "There are three jars with three quantities of sugar," but it's not exactly common. - Sorry to disagree. It's plain wrong to my ears.

You can say, "There are three pounds of sugar in the container," because "pounds" is countable. Yes, I agree.

Avangi · Answer

AnonymousYou can say, "There are three jars with three quantities of sugar," but it's not exactly common. - Sorry to disagree. It's plain wrong to my ears.

Hi, Dimsum.

Yes, there's probably a better way to say it.

I'm presenting an exercise to my kindergarten class.

Here are two quantities of sugar. Which quantity is larger?

It seems like similar language is used in practice experiments, or mathmatical examples.

There is an unknown quantity of something. (referring to the substance and the amount)

If I say, "Here are two bowls of sugar. Which [bowl] is larger?" -- my question is ambiguous.

To my ear, "Here are two quantities of sugar" is more natural than "Here are two amounts of sugar."

As an aside, I believe that both "quantity" and "amount" can refer to both countable and uncountable things.

I may be wrong.

"Here are two quantities/amounts of dollars" may be unnatural, but I don't think it's incorrect.

Best regards, - A.

Dimsumexpress · Answer

Hi Avangi,

My learned instinct tells me that in natural setting, people don't say "quantity of sugar/ salt".

What sounds natural to my ears is: Can I borrow s cup of sugar? May I have some sugar?

AvangiI'm presenting an exercise to my kindergarten class.

I appreacite that. Perhaps, that's reason enough to point out the "don'ts". It's necessary for the beginners to recognize that sugar, water, sunshine, powder, sand, soup and many other so-called uncountable nouns require a proper quantifier, i.e. a cup of sugar, or a bucket of sand, a bottle of water and so on. As i had mentioned, depending on the context, differnt "quantifiers" seemed to paired up better with the uncountable noun than others, and that's where learners have a tough time getting it because of the idiosyncraticy of our language. What I mean is, when people say " add a pinch of salt...", it is definitely vastly different than " add a spoonful of salt..".

Avangi · Answer

I appreciate your view, but I also feel the need to acknowledge that "uncommon" is different from "plain wrong."

Let's say I'm speaking to young children.

Here are two identical jars with water in them. The quantities of water are different.

With what word would you replace "quantities"?

I'll grant you that this concept may be too difficult for kindergarteners.

Dimsumexpress · Answer

AvangiWith what word would you replace "quantities"?

Maybe I am getting a bit too deep with this topic. Grammatically. I agree; it's not wrong. Though, from the syntacticaly point of view, this did sound wrong: "There are three jars with three quantities of sugar," but it's not exactly common." No offense, just pure exchange of the minds.

AvangiHere are two identical jars with water in them. The quantities of water are different.
With what word would you replace "quantities"?

Perhaps I would replace it with "volume".

Just off the top of my head, here are a couple for your palate:

Police found an unidentified quantity of marijuana in her car.

You will find three buckets there filled with varying volume of water.

Anonymous · Answer

I think I would prefer volumes or amounts over quntities.

A small quantity of sugar or a little quantity of sugarr

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