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Is 'fines' countable or uncountable ?

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Is 'fines' countable or uncountable ?

by yourshail123 » Sat Nov 03, 2012 8:55 am
The administration has increased the number of fines for mining safety violations as part of their campaign to protect miners.
A) has increased the number of fines for mining safety violations as part of their
B) have increased the number of fines for mining safety violations as part of their
C) has increased the number of fines for mining safety violations as part of its
D) has increased the amount of fines for mining safety violations as part of its
E) have increased the amount of fines for mining safety violations as part of their
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by gmatwar13 » Sat Nov 03, 2012 10:46 pm
D...

The administration is singular... B and E out..
A has their.. which dosn't refer back to administaration..
between C and D.... the number of fines... the amount of fine... In this context D is correct...
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by yourshail123 » Sun Nov 04, 2012 1:53 am
Exactly gmatwar13!! I think answer choice should be D.
Even I came up to answer choice between C and D, however I was setback when I saw the correct answer choice as C.

So, I put up this question to check whether the 'fines' are countable.

This is a MGMAT CAT question.
As per MGMAT lesson, I usually try to do it Manhattan way -
1) 1 dollar, 2 dollars, 3 dollars ...... etc. This works; dollar is countable.
2) 1 money, 2 money .. STOP. This does not work; money is uncountable.

Similarly the above rules applies to 'fines'. Can we say 1 fine, 2 fines, ...... etc. so as to conclude 'fines' as countable?
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by gmatwar13 » Sun Nov 04, 2012 2:31 am
oh got it.. between "amount of fines" and "number of fines".. i read d option as "amount of fine" but it is "amount of fines"

you wont say amount of "amount of proteins in egg" you would say "amount of protein in egg".. here we refer to protein as a whole which is uncountable... so protein is used not proteins
similarly you wont say "number of protein in egg" but you would say "number of proteins in egg".. here we refer to various kinds of proteins...so number of is used to show it is countable...

It all depends on context where it is used....nothing to do with plurality... "amount of fine" and "number of fines" both are correct... going by this c is correct..
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by yourshail123 » Sun Nov 04, 2012 2:42 am
Ok. Indeed 'amount of fines' is incorrect and we can take it correct only if it is 'amount of fine'.
But, considering the logic of the sentence wouldn't it be the amount of fine that has increased and not the number?

In this context, grammatically Choice D is also eliminated and leaves the best answer choice C only.
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