Quantity: Introduction

Over the next few lessons we will be focusing on Quantity. Quantity is the amount or number of a material or an immaterial substance. Hence, we will be seeing how to assign quantity words in sentences.

Quantity words are only used with nouns. That means, they are used to describe an amount of an object (noun). There are two types of nouns that take on Quantity words:

1) Countable Nouns (pens, apples etc.) – Things that can be counted

2) Uncountable Nouns (water, gold etc.) – Things that cannot be counted

                                                                                                             .   

As an introduction, let’s see some quantity words in English:

There are many apples on the basket.

Two apples lay on the shelf.

                                                                                                             .   

We have already discussed counting in Nepali, so we will be solely focusing on using various words like many, few, less etc. i.e. words that quantify. To go the lesson on how to count Objects in Nepali, click here.

The two basic counters we will be looking in brief are:

Dherai – Expresses more quantity

For example:

dherai bhat = Much Rice

dherai phulharu = Many Flowers

                     .

Thorai – Expresses less quantity

For example:

thorai pani = Less water

thorai manche`haru = Less people                     .

However, quantity words are not solely used for counting. There are other counting words which do denote quantity but do not do so directly (like the word ‘too’):

ati dherai bhat = Too much rice

Since this is only an introduction, we will be discussing quantity more over the next few lessons (in detail!)

Stay tuned!

Over the next few lessons we will be focusing on Quantity. Quantity is the amount or number of a material or an immaterial substance. Hence, we will be seeing how to assign quantity words in sentences.

Quantity words are only used with nouns. That means, they are used to describe an amount of an object (noun). There are two types of nouns that take on Quantity words:

1) Countable Nouns (pens, apples etc.) – Things that can be counted

2) Uncountable Nouns (water, gold etc.) – Things that cannot be counted

                                                                                                             .   

As an introduction, let’s see some quantity words in English:

There are many apples on the basket.

Two apples lay on the shelf.

                                                                                                             .   

We have already discussed counting in Nepali, so we will be solely focusing on using various words like many, few, less etc. i.e. words that quantify. To go the lesson on how to count Objects in Nepali, click here.

The two basic counters we will be looking in brief are:

Dherai – Expresses more quantity

For example:

dherai bhat = Much Rice

dherai phulharu = Many Flowers

                     .

Thorai – Expresses less quantity

For example:

thorai pani = Less water

thorai manche`haru = Less people                     .

However, quantity words are not solely used for counting. There are other counting words which do denote quantity but do not do so directly (like the word ‘too’):

ati dherai bhat = Too much rice

Since this is only an introduction, we will be discussing quantity more over the next few lessons (in detail!)

Stay tuned!