Amount, Quantity or Number?

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/learnit/learnitv129.shtml

AMOUNT
An amount of something is how much of it there is that you can measure. 
Amount is normally uncountable, so we CANNOT say: 'a large amount of cows were infected.'
But we would say:

• The amount of work I got through in July was double the amount that I did in June.
• No amount of love would heal the hatred she felt.
• I had a certain amount of respect for him: he was a good footballer and a good ambassador for his country.

We can also use amount as a verb, as in amount to, and again this describes the counting or measuring of something:

• When you added everything up, his total expenditure on this project amounted to £9,950.
• I don’t think the talks in Helsinki will amount to very mucH.

QUANTITY
Similarly, a quantity is an amount of something that you can measure or count. We often talk about large or small quantities of something. It is usually applied to inanimate objects so again it is unlikely that we would say: 'a large quantity of cows were infected'. But we would say:

• There were very small quantities of peppers on sale in the market.
• There are very large quantities of gas beneath the North Sea.

We often contrast quantity with quality:

• It doesn’t matter how many words you write: it is the quality that is important, not the quantity.
• These toys are sold in quantity and the quality doesn’t seem to matter

 NUMBER
We use number to describe how many, and often we do not know exactly how many there are. This is one of the defining aspects of a number of. Number is countable and can be applied to both animate and inanimate items, so this is the one that fits your sentence:

• a large number of cows were infected.
• There are a number of reasons why I can’t marry you.
• A number of people were injured in the explosion.
• I had warned her not to go there any number of times, but she wouldn’t listen

Collocations

VERB + RELATIONSHIP  

> enjoy, have They enjoyed a close working relationship. The school has a very good relationship with the community. He had brief relationships with several women. | 

> begin, build (up), develop, establish, foster Building strong relationships is essential. They established a relationship of trust. | 

> cement, improve, strengthen | 

> continue, maintain | 

> handle, manage He's not very good at handling personal relationships. | 

> break off She broke off the relationship when she found out about his gambling.  

> destroy Lack of trust destroys many relationships.

Inversion of Order

http://www.englishgrammar.org/inversion-conditional-clauses/

Inversion in conditional clauses

Had it not rained

Contracted negative forms are not possible when we use an inverted word order to talk about an unreal or impossible situation in the past.

Had she not helped me I would have been in bad trouble. (NOT Hadn’t she helped me I would have been in bad trouble.)

This is actually the inverted form of the sentence ‘If she had not helped me I would have been in bad trouble’.

Had it not rained yesterday, we would have finished painting the walls.

Of course, contracted negative forms are possible when we use normal word order.

If it had not rained yesterday, we would have finished painting the walls. OR If it hadn’t rained yesterday, we would have finished painting the walls.

If you hadn’t been so stupid as to reject that job offer, youcould have attained financial independence now.

The third conditional sentences are used to talk about things that might have happened, but didn’t. Note that here we use a past perfect tense in the if-clause and would/could have + past participle in the main clause.

If it hadn’t rained yesterday, we would have hosted the party in the garden.

Should you not wish to

The inversion structure is also possible with should.

The structure with should is used to talk about present and future conditions. Here again negative forms are not contracted.

Should you not wish to join them, you must let them know before 4 o’clock. (NOT Shouldn’t you…)

Should you decide the sell the house, I will be happy to buy it from you.

Note that here should does not show obligation. It is merely used as an alternative to the present simple tense.

If you decide to sell the house, I will be happy to buy it from you.

Were we to have

Inversion is also possible with were. This structure is used to talk about the imaginary or improbable future situations.

Were we to have kids, we would need a bigger house. (= If we were to have kids, we would need a bigger house.)

Countable and uncountable nouns

Cognates and false cognates

http://www.colorincolorado.org/pdfs/articles/cognates.pdf

Differences between BrE and AmE

http://esl.about.com/od/toeflieltscambridge/a/dif_ambrit.htm