"amounting to" or just "amounting"

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vladz

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I was asked by my student if he should place a preposition to after the word amounting. Below is the sample sentence.

The withdrawal (amounting to/ amounting) 10 million was not stated in the books of account.

Could I also replace the word "amounting" with "amount".

Thanks.
 
The word amount is always paired with to. Your example sentence should read: "The withdrawal, amounting to 10 million, was not stated in the books of account." (You could also say in the amount of.)

One well-worn usage:

  • It (or he or she) doesn't amount to much.

:)
 
amounting to



Obviously, my statement, "The word amount is always paired with to" was an error. Indeed, I contradicted it in the same posting in which it appeared. :oops:

How about this:

  • Ron's advice doesn't always amount to much, but he usually gets it right sooner or later.

What do you think?

:wink:
 
RonBee said:
How about this:

  • Ron's advice doesn't always amount to much, but he usually gets it right sooner or later.

What do you think?

:wink:
Click to expand...

Do you think the sentence sounds a little vague. What about change it into ' Ron's advice doesn't always carry much weigh, ..... '. Well, it is off-topic but I wonder if this is an option to say so.
 
whl626 said:
RonBee said:
How about this:

  • Ron's advice doesn't always amount to much, but he usually gets it right sooner or later.

What do you think?

:wink:
Click to expand...

Do you think the sentence sounds a little vague. What about change it into ' Ron's advice doesn't always carry much weigh, ..... '. Well, it is off-topic but I wonder if this is an option to say so.
Click to expand...

Well, I am glad somebody responded. :)

The phrase it (or he or she) doesn't amount to much is an idiomatic English expression that means it (whatever it happens to be) is insubstantial or insignificant. There is not likely to be a problem understanding that expression in an AE speech community (I'm not certain about (BE), but I can see how an ESL learner might have difficulty with it.

As you can imagine, I do try to get it right the first time, but sometimes I rethink my original advice. Well, nobody's perfect. :wink: (I do keep trying.)

"Ron's advice doesn't always carry much weight" does mean pretty much the same thing as my sentence. In fact, the only real difference I see is that it doesn't have amount in it. :wink:

Your opinions are always welcome here.

:)
 
"Amount"

"No amount is too small to help."
--the American Red Cross
www.redcross.org

:)
 
"amount"

amount

  • Ten dollars is the amount of money I want.
    The amount of money I want is ten dollars.
    The amount of words in the essay should amount to no more than 1,000.
 
amount

  • That's what it amounts to.
    He was sued for the amount of $10,000.
    The money was gone, and he couldn't account for it.

Thanks to MANILA_MIKE and MIKENEWYORK. (See links at previous posting.)

:D
 
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