3

This seems off to me and I am not sure how to correct it or if the pronoun is wrong for paper in this sentence:

You moved a large amount of paper from a space and intended to store them in a room that you are solely using.

Does it need to be more than one sentence, or rearranged for clarity? Could this mean one moved them or it is them??

1 Answer 1

4

Choose between...

1: You moved a large amount number of papers from [somewhere], intending to store them [somewhere else]

2: You moved a large amount of paper from [somewhere], intending to store it [somewhere else]

...where #1 emphasises many documents ("articles", quantified by number), and #2 emphasises much paper (a "substance", quantified by volume).

Note that although I replaced amount by number in #1, that doesn't imply amount is "incorrect". It's just less common in that exact context. There are several more "non-idiomatic" aspects to the OP's original text, but that's all Off Topic proofreading.

2
  • To me, "papers" implies that the sheets have something written on them with the further connotation that the writing is of a personal or official nature. "Paper" implies that the sheets are blank or less-commonly with the connotation that any writing that may be on the sheets is of no importance.
    – vir
    Aug 1, 2022 at 17:35
  • 1
    I'd say "amount of paper" is fine, especially if you're talking about boxes full of blank paper, as @vir says. Or if we don't care what's on the paper, it's just a bunch of trash or old files or some such. If you were talking about documents whose content is important, then yes, I'd say "number of papers".
    – Jay
    Aug 1, 2022 at 17:38

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .