Chap. 5 Countable and Uncountable Nouns

1
Chap. 5 Countable and Uncountable Nouns

• Wednesday, 10/31, 2007

2

• At home I have a desk which chair is so badly
  designed that every time I sit on it I go crazy.
• At home I have a desk the chair of which is so
  badly designed that every time I sit on it I go
  crazy.
• At home I have a desk and a chair which is so
  badly designed that every time I sit on it I go
  crazy.
• At home I have a desk whose chair is so badly
  designed that every time I sit on it I go crazy.

3

• One of my school bags is badly designed. It has
  only a little space which I can put the book I
  use.
• One of my school bags is badly designed. It has
  only a little space where I can put the book I
  use.
• One of my school bags is badly designed. It has
  only a little space in which I can put the book I
  use.

4
Countable Nouns

• Have both singular and plural forms
• Singular form is always preceded by a, an, the,
  or other determiners.
• Singular form cannot stand alone
• He made a promise/two promises.
• He made promise (X)

5
Irregular plural form

• wife wives
• life lives
• thief thieves
• belief beliefs
• chief chiefs
• roof - roofs

6
Irregular plural form

• potato potatoes
• photo photos
• man men woman women child - children
• tooth teeth
• foot feet
• mouse - mice

7
Uncountable nouns

• Do not have a plural form
• Are never used with a or an
• Are used with a third person singular verb
• Chocolate comes from the cocoa bean.
• Life is exciting.

8

• Sometimes, nouns that are uncountable in one
  context become countable in another
• Chocolate comes from the cocoa bean.
• Would you like a chocolate?
• Life is exciting.
• He lived an exciting life.

9
Exercise 5 (p. 51)

• Oral responses

10
Quantity words with countable and uncountable
nouns

• Countable
• Singular
• each, every, another
• Plural
• many, a few, few, several, a great number of, a
  large number of
• Uncountable
• Singular
• much, a little, little, a great deal of, a large
  amount of

11

• Quantity words for both countable and uncountable
  nouns
• some
• any
• a lot of
• lots of
• no
• not any

12

• A lot of ? much
• She has a lot of free time.
• She doesnt have much time.
• Does she have much time?

13
Few (little) and a few (a little)

• A few few
• He has a few (some) friends, so he goes out most
  weekends.
• He has few (almost no) friends, so he stays home
  most weekends.

14

• A little little
• He has a little (some) time to work on the
  project.
• He has little (almost no) time to work on the
  project.

15
Measure words

• Uncountable nouns are often found preceded by a
  noun phrase that serves to make them countable.
• A piece of paper / many pieces of paper
• A bottle of wine / five bottles of wine
• A slice of bread / two slices of bread
• A drop of water / several drops of water

16
Exercise 6 (p. 53)

• Oral responses

17
Fridays class

• Meet at Ross 312 on Friday
• Arrive on time
• Quiz 8 on countable and uncountable nouns
• Participation in Annotations in ESL Reading
  activity
• Paper 3 (The interview Paper) is due 24 hrs
  before your conference time.