a number of 和a great deal of 在意思上相同,但用法不一樣.a number of 后面只能跟可數(shù)名詞的復(fù)數(shù)形式,而a great deal of 后面只能跟不可數(shù)名詞.
例如：A number of accidents always occur on rainy days.雨天常常有許多事故發(fā)生.
A number of books are missing from the library.圖書館的一些書不見(jiàn)了.
I spent a great deal of my time on this work.我在這項(xiàng)工作上花了不少時(shí)間.
另外,a great deal of 也可說(shuō)成a good deal of.
例如：She spends a good deal of money on clothes every year.她每年在衣服上花了不少錢.
除了 a number of 之外,也可以用a large/good number of 或(large) numbers of 來(lái)表示數(shù)量眾多,意思為“大量的,眾多的”
例如：Numbers of people came from all parts of the country to see the exhibition.
許多人從國(guó)內(nèi)來(lái)參觀這個(gè)展覽.
需要引起注意的是,若用the number of ,后面仍需用名詞復(fù)數(shù),但謂語(yǔ)動(dòng)詞則應(yīng)用單數(shù).因?yàn)檫@時(shí)表示的是數(shù)字,而非數(shù)量.
例如：The number of books missing from the library is very large.
圖書館遺失的圖書數(shù)量很大.