Unit 3: Can't buy me love
Quantifiers: all, each, every, both, either, neither
Select a unit
- 1Pop-ups
- 2Hidden talents
- 3Can't buy me love
- 4Travellers' tales
- 5The colleague from hell
- 6Jurassic mystery: unpacking the past
- 7Career changes
- 8Art
- 9Project management
- 10The dog ate my homework!
- 11The diary of a double agent
- 12Fashion forward
- 13Flat pack skyscrapers
- 14Extreme sports
- 15Food fads
- 16Me, my selfie and I
- 17Endangered animals
- 18A nip and a tuck: cosmetic surgery
- 19I'm really sorry...
- 20Telling stories
- 21Fakes and phrasals
- 22Looking to the future
- 23Becoming familiar with things
- 24From rags to riches
- 25Against the odds
- 26Our future on Mars?
- 27Where is it illegal to get a fish drunk?
- 28Dodgy dating
- 29Annoying advice
- 30I'll have been studying English for thirty weeks
Session 1
Where do you get advice before you travel? How much baggage do you usually take? In this session you'll find out the link between words like advice and baggage along with a lot more uncountable nouns.
Wayitii marii qabxii 1
0 / 14
- 0 / 0Activity 1
- 0 / 8Activity 2
- 0 / 6Activity 3
Activity 3
A piece of furniture, a glass of water
Can you spot the mistakes?
So you've seen and heard that indefinite articles don't go in front of uncountable nouns. We don't say 'a salt' or 'an information' in English. Remember that we don't put an -s at the end of uncountable nouns to make them plural, but there some that already have an -s at the end - so be careful! We also heard that we can use phrases like a piece of with uncountable nouns.
Here's an explanation about a piece of and some more phrases you can use with some food and drink uncountable nouns.
Barreeffama kana dubbisii shakala kana xumuri
A piece of...
In 6 Minute Vocabulary we learned that we can use a piece of with uncountable nouns like information, advice and research. We can also use a piece of with uncountable nouns for materials.
Can I have a piece of paper, please?
You need four pieces of wood to make this bookcase.
Words for containers
When we talk about food and drink, we use uncountable nouns like rice, fruit and water. We don't use indefinite articles like a or an with these nouns, but when we want to talk about the containers of these food and drink items we can use the indefinite article.
Liquids
Would you like a glass of water?
A large cup of tea, please.
Every morning I need to have a mug of coffee - otherwise I can't function properly.
There's a jug of milk on each table.
Food
Remember to pick up a bag of sugar from the shop.
I've got three packets of salt and a box of cereal - is that enough?
To do
Time to put your uncountable noun knowledge to the test! Try this quiz and see if you can spot the mistakes.
Spot the uncountable mistakes
6 Questions
Do these sentences have any mistakes with their uncountable nouns? Remember to think about the nouns - are they activity words, information words or group nouns? Is there a phrase like a piece of?
Gargaarsa
Activity
Do these sentences have any mistakes with their uncountable nouns? Remember to think about the nouns - are they activity words, information words or group nouns? Is there a phrase like a piece of?
karaarra buusu
It's a group nounGargaarsa
Activity
Do these sentences have any mistakes with their uncountable nouns? Remember to think about the nouns - are they activity words, information words or group nouns? Is there a phrase like a piece of?
karaarra buusu
Remember that some food words are uncountableGargaarsa
Activity
Do these sentences have any mistakes with their uncountable nouns? Remember to think about the nouns - are they activity words, information words or group nouns? Is there a phrase like a piece of?
karaarra buusu
Remember 'piece' is a countable nounGargaarsa
Activity
Do these sentences have any mistakes with their uncountable nouns? Remember to think about the nouns - are they activity words, information words or group nouns? Is there a phrase like a piece of?
karaarra buusu
'Homework' is an uncountable nounGargaarsa
Activity
Do these sentences have any mistakes with their uncountable nouns? Remember to think about the nouns - are they activity words, information words or group nouns? Is there a phrase like a piece of?
karaarra buusu
'Water' is an uncountable noun and needs a special phrase with itGargaarsa
Activity
Do these sentences have any mistakes with their uncountable nouns? Remember to think about the nouns - are they activity words, information words or group nouns? Is there a phrase like a piece of?
karaarra buusu
'Flour' is a substance and a food wordQuestion 1 of 6
Correct sentence
Incorrect sentence
Excellent!Great job!Carraa badaa!Qabxii argatte:
Spot the uncountable mistakes
6 Questions
Do these sentences have any mistakes with their uncountable nouns? Remember to think about the nouns - are they activity words, information words or group nouns? Is there a phrase like a piece of?
Gargaarsa
Activity
Do these sentences have any mistakes with their uncountable nouns? Remember to think about the nouns - are they activity words, information words or group nouns? Is there a phrase like a piece of?
karaarra buusu
It's a group nounQuestion 1 of 6
Gargaarsa
Activity
Do these sentences have any mistakes with their uncountable nouns? Remember to think about the nouns - are they activity words, information words or group nouns? Is there a phrase like a piece of?
karaarra buusu
Remember that some food words are uncountableQuestion 2 of 6
Gargaarsa
Activity
Do these sentences have any mistakes with their uncountable nouns? Remember to think about the nouns - are they activity words, information words or group nouns? Is there a phrase like a piece of?
karaarra buusu
Remember 'piece' is a countable nounQuestion 3 of 6
Gargaarsa
Activity
Do these sentences have any mistakes with their uncountable nouns? Remember to think about the nouns - are they activity words, information words or group nouns? Is there a phrase like a piece of?
karaarra buusu
'Homework' is an uncountable nounQuestion 4 of 6
Gargaarsa
Activity
Do these sentences have any mistakes with their uncountable nouns? Remember to think about the nouns - are they activity words, information words or group nouns? Is there a phrase like a piece of?
karaarra buusu
'Water' is an uncountable noun and needs a special phrase with itQuestion 5 of 6
Gargaarsa
Activity
Do these sentences have any mistakes with their uncountable nouns? Remember to think about the nouns - are they activity words, information words or group nouns? Is there a phrase like a piece of?
karaarra buusu
'Flour' is a substance and a food wordQuestion 6 of 6
Excellent!Great job!Carraa badaa!Qabxii argatte:
End of Session 1
Well done if you managed to complete all the uncountable noun sentences correctly! That's it for this session. Join us for Session 2 where we'll look at quantifiers like some, either and neither. See you there!
Session Vocabulary
Uncountable nouns have no plural form and are not used with the indefinite article a or an.
Can you give me some information about accommodation in the city?
There are three main types of uncountable nouns that students often think are countable:
- activity nouns: travel, work, homework
- information nouns: advice, information, knowledge, research
- group nouns: accommodation, baggage, furniture, money, traffic, weather
Other nouns that are uncountable are:
- liquids and gasses: water, air
- materials and substances: wood, rice
- feelings and ideas: happiness, education
- subjects: geography, history, economics
A few uncountable nouns look plural because they end in -s. But they use a singular verb like other uncountable nouns:
Physics is a very interesting subject.
