Academic vocabulary · Quantifying

Quantifying in academic English

This is the language that does one job: it says how many or how much, at a level of precision you can actually defend. Task 2 gives you no data, so every quantity you write is your own. That is exactly why the words matter: “most”, “many” and “a lot of” are three different claims, and only one of them is usually true. Choosing the honest one is both a vocabulary skill and an argument skill.

6 itemseach with the pattern it requires

2 worked exampleswith the word doing the work marked

2 common mistakeswith the repair

4 exercisesrecognition first, then production

Start here · the long version

What quantifying really asks you to decide

Quantifying says how many or how much at a level of precision you can defend — which, in an essay with no data, means choosing the honest word rather than the impressive one.

Every quantity in Task 2 is yours

Task 1 hands you figures; Task 2 hands you nothing. Every quantity in your essay is therefore a claim you made up, and the only thing keeping it honest is which word you chose. “Most”, “many” and “a lot of” are three different claims — one is a majority, one is unquantified, and one is spoken English that claims nothing at all — and only one of them is usually true.

This makes quantifying an argument skill as much as a lexical one. Conceding that only a minority of employers have adopted a scheme, and then arguing that those that have report better outcomes, is more convincing than claiming a majority you cannot support. The honest quantity survives a reader who knows the field; the inflated one hands them a reason to distrust the paragraph.

The grammar is where it breaks in predictable places. “The majority of” counts things and takes a plural verb; “most of” works with an uncountable mass. “Amount” is for a mass, “number” for a count. And “a lot of” is not wrong so much as empty — it lowers the register and reports no quantity in the same three words.

Count or mass

“The majority of workers” counts. “Most of the pollution” is a mass. “The majority of the pollution” is neither.

Number or amount

“A number of households”, “an amount of energy”. Swapping them is the commonest slip in this family.

Fractions read as considered

“A third of” sounds measured even without a source, where “many” sounds like a guess.

Concede small numbers

“A minority of” is often the stronger opening, because the argument after it does not depend on the count.

What it costs you to skip this

An inflated quantity is the easiest claim in your essay for a reader to reject, and rejecting it costs the paragraph rather than the sentence. “A lot of” costs differently and constantly: it is spoken English and it reports nothing, so every occurrence is a place where a precise quantity was available for free.

Where it stops applying

No quantifier turns an invented figure into a fact — “approximately 70%” with no source is still fabricated, and hedging it makes it worse rather than better. And quantities cannot carry an argument on their own: how many people hold a view is not evidence that the view is right, which is the fallacy this vocabulary most often enables.

Examples · why precise words score better

The same idea, twice

Lexical Resource is one of the four criteria, and it is not a count of long words. What it rewards is whether your word choice adds information — and the fastest way to see that is to watch one sentence become precise. Nothing was added below except accuracy.

Vague

A lot of people in cities have problems with housing costs.

Quantifying

Precise

A substantial proportion of urban households spend more than a third of their income on rent.

“A lot of” is spoken English and reports no quantity at all. “A substantial proportion of urban households” names who, and “more than a third of their income” names what the problem actually is — the vague version has neither.

What the precise version earns
precision · range · register. No page here promises anyone a score: these are the things the criterion actually looks at, and they are the things you can control.

The language

Each item, and the pattern it demands

Knowing a word and not its pattern is exactly what produces a sentence that reads like a translation. The preposition, the verb form and the article are the part that carries the marks.

a significant proportion of

Safe to use

Followed by a plural or uncountable noun, with a singular verb: “a significant proportion of students is”. Careful — usage now accepts the plural verb too.

the majority of

Safe to use

Plural noun, plural verb: “the majority of workers report”. Means more than half, never “a lot”.

a minority of

Safe to use

Plural noun. Means fewer than half — useful for conceding a point without giving up your position.

a third / two thirds of

Safe to use

Takes “of” plus the noun, and the verb agrees with that noun. Fractions read as more considered than “many”, even without a source.

negligible

Watch the pattern

An adjective before a noun: “a negligible effect”. It claims the amount is too small to matter, which is a real claim your paragraph must support.

a lot of / lots of

Costs you marks

Spoken English. It states no quantity and lowers the register in the same three words — the clearest downgrade available in this function.

Watch two · then do three

See the word doing its job in a real sentence

Worked example · a significant proportion of … more than a third

A significant proportion of urban households now spend more than a third of their income on rent.

Why it works: Two quantities, neither invented: one describes how many households, the other how big the burden is. Neither claims a figure the writer does not have.

Worked example · a minority of

While a minority of employers have adopted the scheme, those that have report markedly lower turnover.

Why it works: Conceding the small numbers up front makes the second half more convincing, not less. Quantifying honestly is an argumentative move as much as a lexical one.

What goes wrong

The mistakes this function produces

Most are collocation errors, not grammar errors — which is why no spell-checker will ever flag them.

The majority of the pollution comes from private vehicles.

“The majority of” counts things; pollution is uncountable here. The word for an uncountable amount is “most”, or name the share.

Repaired: Most of the pollution comes from private vehicles.

A lot of studies shows that exercise improves mood.

Register and agreement in one short clause. “A lot of” is conversational, and after it the plural “studies” needs “show”.

Repaired: A number of studies show that exercise improves mood.

Now you try · with the scaffolding on

Build it one step at a time

State the quantity honestly, and get the grammar of the quantifier right.

The material

You believe this is true of clearly more than half of urban households, and you have no figure.

Step 1Decide the strongest claim you can defend

More than half. Is that “most”, “the vast majority”, or “a number of”? Write which and why the others fail.

Your version0 words · minimum 8

8 more words before you can compare. Writing it yourself first is the whole exercise.

Step 2Check countable or mass, and fix the verb

Step 3Write it

Exercises · step 1, recognition

Before you learn the words, learn the job

A word list memorised before you can see what it is for is a word list that gets used in the wrong place.

Step 1 · the job

Which phrase states that honestly?

The situation: You believe this is true of clearly more than half of a group, but you have no figure.

All three are grammatical English. Only one of them does the job this function exists for.

Exercises · step 2, production

Choose the item that does the job and takes the right pattern

Every wrong option is wrong for its own reason, and it says so. Nothing here is scored automatically.

______ urban households now spend more than a third of their income on rent.

Choose an option first

The majority of workers in the survey ______ that they would not return to a daily commute.

Choose an option first

You want to concede that few employers have adopted a scheme, before arguing it works. Which phrase?

Choose an option first

The other functions

Seven more jobs for words to do

Hedging

It lowers the temperature of a claim, so you only have to defend what you actually said.

6 items · 3 exercises Asserting

It raises the temperature of a claim, so the reader knows which points you are prepared to stand behind.

6 items · 3 exercises Attributing

It makes clear whose claim each sentence is — yours, the prompt’s, or somebody else’s.

6 items · 3 exercises Causing

It names which way the arrow points between two things.

6 items · 3 exercises Evaluating

It says whether something is good or bad, and in what specific respect.

6 items · 3 exercises Proposing

It names what should be done, precisely enough that a reader could picture it happening.

6 items · 3 exercises Register

It keeps every sentence at the formality the task expects.

6 items · 3 exercises