Table 1 lists several types of nouns that are frequently used as N1s in a QBC. These nouns share the semantic property that they can be used to refer to a certain number of entities or a certain quantity of a substance denoted by N2.

	examples of nouns	example
quantifier nouns (QNs)	aantal ‘number’, (hele)boel ‘lot’, hoop ‘lot’, paar ‘couple’, stel ‘couple’, etc.	een hoop problemen a lot [of] problems
measure nouns (MNs)	kilo ‘kilo’, liter ‘liter’, meter ‘meter’, dozijn ‘dozen’, gros ‘gross’, etc.	een kilo bonen a kilo [of] beans
Container nouns (ConNs)	kop ‘cup’, doos ‘box’, emmer ‘bucket’, krat ‘crate’, etc.	een doos pillen a box [of] pills
part nouns (PartNs)	brok ‘piece’, klontje ‘lump’, reep ‘bar’, stuk ‘piece’, etc.	een stuk cake a piece [of] cake
collective nouns (ColNs)	dozijn ‘dozen’, groep ‘group’, kudde ‘flock’, paar ‘pair’, rij ‘row’, stapel ‘pile’, serie ‘series’, zwerm ‘swarm’, etc.	een groep studenten a group [of] students

Often some nouns seem to belong to more than one group, which can lead to ambiguity. This is especially true for quantifier nouns, which can often be either purely quantificational (i.e. without any descriptive content) or more referential i.e. with descriptive content that allows them to refer to an entity). A clear example is the noun paarcouple. The QBC in (2a) is ambiguous between two readings. In the first reading, the noun paar acts as a quantifier noun and can be translated as “couple/number of”: the noun has a purely quantificational function and the QBC refers to a small number of shoes. In the second reading, the noun acts as a collective noun and must be translated as “pair of”: the noun has descriptive content that allows it to denote a certain set of entities, and the QBC refers to two shoes that form a pair. Note that the quantificational reading is not available when N1 is preceded by a definite article, as in (2b).

Another example involves the noun aantalnumber in (3). Example (3a) shows that the noun aantal can be used as a quantifier noun if it is preceded by the indefinite article eena: the QBC refers to a small but indefinite number of students. However, if aantal is preceded by the definite article hetthe, as in (3b), it must refer to an actual number; in this case it probably functions as a measure noun.

It is not clear whether the classification in Table 1 is exhaustive, and sometimes it may be difficult to decide which semantic class a particular N1 belongs to. Moreover, N1s tend to shift from one class to another (especially towards quantifier nouns) when their referring force weakens, which is probably what happened to the nouns paar and aantal in (2) and (3), and the same may be true for the quantifier noun hoop, which is related to the collective noun hoopheap; cf. mesthoopmanure heap and een hoop mesta heap/lot of manure. We will discuss such N1s mainly in their (unmarked) function as quantifier nouns.

Finally, note that many nouns that do not normally occur as N1 can enter QBCs when followed by the unstressed adjective volfull in (4a); some formations, such as een handvol in een handvol snoepjesa handful of sweets, are even completely lexicalized. The quantificational adjective heelcomplete and some other attributive adjectives may have a similar effect. Some examples are given in (4b&c).

Table 2 shows that an N2 can be either a plural count noun or a non-count noun: singular count nouns cannot be used as such. What these two categories have in common is the property of cumulativity or divisibility: the union of two sets of entities denoted by a plural noun results in a larger set of the same entities, and the division of such a set of entities results in smaller sets of the same entities; similarly, the union of two quantities of a substance denoted by a non-count noun results in a larger quantity of the same substance, and the division of a quantity of a substance results in smaller quantities of the same substance. This property does not hold for singular nouns: a singular noun refers to an entity, and the union of two entities forms a set, while the division of an entity results in entities of a different kind.

	count nouns		non-count nouns
	plural	singular
QN	een hoop problemen a lot [of] problems	*een hoop probleem a lot [of] problem	een hoop lawaai a lot [of] noise
MN	een kilo bonen a kilo [of] beans	*een kilo boon a kilo [of] bean	een kilo kaas a kilo [of] cheese
ConN	een doos pillen a box [of] pills	*een doos pil a box [of] pill	een pot zalf a pot [of] ointment
ColN	een groep studenten a group [of] students	*een groep student a group [of] students	een kudde vee a herd/flock [of] cattle
PartN	*een stuk koekjes a piece [of] cookies	*een stuk koekje a piece [of] cookie	een stuk cake a piece [of] cake

Table 2 also shows that part nouns are special in licensing only non-count nouns. There are other cases where additional requirements apply. For example, a quantifier noun such as sloot, which literally means “ditch”, can usually only be combined with a substance noun denoting a liquid. This is shown in (5a). Similarly, many collective nouns impose special requirements on N2: the collective noun kuddeherd/flock in (5b) can only be combined with nouns referring to certain species of mammals, zwermswarm mainly with certain types of flying insects, vluchtflight only with birds, schoolshoal only with fish, etc.

These special restrictions are by no means strict, but violating them will generally result in some special effect. For example, the collective noun kuddeherd/flock, can be used pejoratively in combination with nouns referring to people, as in example (6a). Here, the noun kudde is used figuratively, and as a result (6a) can be used to refer to students with certain characteristics normally attributed to elephants or cattle, like being noisy/destructive or docile. In the case of the noun slootditch, the difference between (5a) and (6b) has nothing to do with figurative speech, since sloot is hardly ever used literally in QBCs; instead, the difference here seems to be between substances that could fill a ditch and things that could not. In the latter case, sloot can also be followed by a plural noun, and the meaning conveyed is typically negative, e.g. “too many”.