When we talk about quantities, we need to know that some nouns are countable and others are uncountable. This is an important distinction because countable nouns have a plural (we can add the letter –s at the end), but uncountable nouns don’t. If you follow this lesson, you’ll never mix them up again! This lesson is great for beginners but is also valuable to intermediate and advanced students.
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Mr. P. is a Canadian English Teacher/Coach from Toronto, Canada, who has been teaching English since 1997. He taught English to adults in Rome for over 25 years. He is an Honorary Fellow in the English Language at UNITELMA La Sapienza University in Rome. In the past, he was also a Language Monitor at the University of Toronto. He has also taught English to many important politicians and celebrities in Italy. He is a certified English Teacher specializing in TEFL, TESL, TESOL (Arizona State University) & TOEFL. Marc's channel aims to make his lessons concise and effective for everyone. Subscribe for weekly updates and please make comments and requests.
Hello everyone, this is Marc from www.englishmarc.net.
I need to go grocery shopping today.
I need to buy some sugar, some rice, some flour and maybe four apples, three oranges
and two bananas.
Today I'm going to talk about countables and uncountables.
In my introductory sentence I said I needed to buy some rice, some sugar, some flours
but four apples and three oranges and two bananas, I think.
What do you notice about these nouns?
Yes, some are singular and some are plural.
So why is that?
Because like in any other language we have countable nouns and uncountable nouns.
So let's talk about the countable nouns.
The countable nouns are nouns that you can count.
Like I said for apples, two oranges.
So you notice that at the end of the noun there is an S.
This makes it plural.
So I said orange, oranges, apple, apples.
There are others that do not need an S at the end.
They change word.
For example, child, children.
One child, two children.
One foot, two feet.
They change word.
These are irregular nouns.
They have another root in English.
So let's continue with the countable nouns and say that we need an article also.
A or an.
An orange, an apple.
These are obviously the countable nouns.
We need some any, a few, and many with countable nouns.
And then also the number, one, two, three, because they can be counted.
So for the uncountable nouns, these are nouns that cannot be counted.
Like I said, sugar, rice, flour.
It's impossible to say one sugar unless it's a cube of sugar.
But you use usually a spoon of sugar.
What else?
You use a cup of sugar.
You give another noun to identify the quantity.
So for these uncountable nouns, we use some, any, a little, and much.
Here is a list my students have problems with.
So homework.
We never say homeworks.
It's uncountable.
Information.
We never say informations.
Advice, research, money, luggage, knowledge.
They are uncountable, so you don't need to put an S at the end.
But let me tell you one other thing.
There are some words that can be either countable or uncountable.
But when they are countable or uncountable, they change meaning.
So for example, room.
I can say as an example, is there any room in the class?
Is there any room in the class?
Or in this house, there are three rooms.
In this house, there are three rooms.
So it changes meaning.
Or for example, let's take time.
How many times have you been to Italy?
And another example that changes the meaning so it can be uncountable.
Do you have the time?
So as you can see, we don't write an S at time.
But these are rare, okay?
Don't worry about it.
So let's recap.
We have countables and uncountables.
So countables, we add an S.
And they can be singular and plural, obviously, because we add an S at the end.
And we use some, any, a few, and many with countables, okay?
And we use the number two, three, or four, okay, to describe a noun.
For an uncountable noun, we cannot count them.
So sugar, flour, okay, etc.
And they are used with some, any, a little, and much, okay?
There can be words that can be both countable and uncountable.
Like time, paper, also room, okay?
But there are few.
And they change meaning, okay?
So now I have a question for you.
How many times have you watched this video?
Write your answer under this video.
I hope you liked it.
And I see you next time.
Have a great day.
Bye-bye.
