Sous-titres (146)
0:00Hello everyone, welcome to the February challenge
on our Discord server where all month we are going
0:06to practice making sentences using "countable"
and "uncountable" nouns. And in this video I'm
0:13going to break it down and teach you all about
this important grammar topic in English. So let's
0:19jump right in and get started, and the first
thing I want to tell you about is what "nouns"
0:26are. This is just a very quick review, it's kind
of basic, but just to make sure that we're all on
0:31the same page, that we're all comfortable with the
vocabulary that we'll be using this month, we need
0:36to talk about "nouns." So "nouns" are just a part
of speech, we call them a part of speech just like
0:42verbs and adjectives and adverbs. And a "noun"
simply is just a thing or a person or a place.
0:49A person, place, or thing is a "noun." Now we can
divide nouns into many different categories, but
0:57for this month we are focusing on two different
kinds of nouns: "countable nouns" and "uncountable
1:05nouns." So let's start by talking about "countable
nouns." We have "countable nouns" up here first,
1:12and simply these are just nouns that we can count,
OK? Things that we can count, so things like "a
1:20dog," "a computer," "a book," "a pencil," OK these
are all items that we can count, right? Maybe you
1:27have three pet dogs, so you could say, "This is
dog one, this is dog two, this is dog three,"
1:34and it's very easy for you to count those. Notice
with "countable nouns," there are always singular
1:41forms like the word "dog." That is singular,
right? Only one. But also there's a plural form,
1:47and the most common way to make a plural noun
in English is just to add the "S" on the ending.
1:54Sometimes, depending on the spelling, you know
we have to change that a little bit—add "ES" or
2:00"IES" or something like that—but still it's that
"S" sound at the end of the noun, OK, that is the
2:05plural form. So a "countable noun" can always have
a plural form. Now the more difficult category is
2:16"uncountable nouns," "uncountable nouns." Or
some people call these "non-count nouns," and
2:22an "uncountable noun" is just a thing that cannot
be counted. So, I have some examples on the screen
2:30here: "water," "air," "advice," "peace," "love,"
"happiness," OK? They're all great things, I love
2:38all of these things, but we can't count them,
right? Think about the air that we are breathing
2:44right now—we're breathing in the air, out the air,
but can you count that? You can't say, "One air,
2:52two airs, three airs, four airs," right? It
doesn't make any sense at all. Air is just
2:57all around us and we can't count it. Same with
water, right? We consider water to be like one
3:04unit of something—water is just water. There's
no plural form. We can't say "waters," right?
3:11"I want to drink two waters" doesn't make sense.
We could just say, "I want to drink two glasses
3:17of water" or "two cups of water." You see, when
we want to count an "uncountable noun" like that,
3:23we need to use a different kind of counting word.
We'll get into that in just a moment, but for now
3:30I just want you to know that there are certain
nouns in English that you can't count. These are
3:36often liquids, gases, materials, maybe a concept
or an idea where it just doesn't make sense to
3:44count them. Next up, I want to introduce a word
to you that you might not be familiar with. The
3:50word is "quantifier," "quantifier." And this is
just another grammar term that refers to words in
3:58English that tell us some information about how
much or how little of something there is. So,
4:05there are many different "quantifiers" in
English, but some of the most common ones
4:09are like the ones that I have on the screen here:
"much," "many," "some," "few," "less," OK? When
4:16I'm talking about these kinds of words, they
are called "quantifiers." So, if you hear me
4:22use this word "quantifier," now you know what it
means. And one thing that's a little bit confusing
4:28is that sometimes we use certain quantifiers
with countable nouns and different quantifiers
4:35with uncountable nouns, and then there are some
quantifiers that work with both kinds of nouns,
4:42and I'm going to go into that in a bit more detail
right now. First, let's talk about "many" versus
4:49"much." We use "many" with "countable nouns" and
"much" with uncountable nouns. This is a very
4:56strict rule in English. So, "many" with countable
nouns. I have an example sentence on the screen
5:02here: "I picked many apples today." Went to
the orchard, the apple tree farm, and I picked
5:09some apples, I picked many apples. "Apples" is a
countable noun. It's in its plural form, right?
5:16More than one, with the "S" ending—"apples."
And so we must use "many" with countable nouns
5:22like this. The next one, "much," we use with
uncountable nouns, and I have the example sentence
5:29on the screen: "There's too much sugar in this
coffee." It's too sweet. It's gross, OK? "Sugar"
5:36we think of as just being like one unit. Of
course there are many individual grains of sugar,
5:42but it's too small to count each one, right? So
we use it as an uncountable noun: "sugar." And so,
5:50"There's too much sugar." We need to use "much"
with "sugar" because "sugar" is a non-countable,
5:57"uncountable noun." And also, guys, you'll notice
that there's no "S" on the end, right? We don't
6:02say "sugars." We just say "sugar." "There's too
much sugar." So, "many" with countable nouns,
6:08"much" with uncountable nouns. Next up, we
have the opposite of "much" and "many," and
6:14that is "less" and "fewer." We use "fewer" with
countable nouns and "less" with uncountable nouns.
6:21Let's check out the example sentences that
are on the screen here. The first one says,
6:26"I read fewer books these days." "I read fewer
books these days." Maybe in the past you read
6:33many, many books, and now you don't have as much
time, you're busier, and so it's difficult to read
6:39books. "I read fewer books these days." So "books"
is a countable noun. We can count one book,
6:45two books, three books, etc., so "fewer books."
The next example sentence with "less" says,
6:53"I have less time now than before." So maybe
a similar situation—you had more free time
6:59in the past, and now you are busier than
in the past. "You have less free time than
7:05before," OK? "Time" is an uncountable noun. As I
mentioned, many concepts and ideas are uncountable
7:13according to English grammar. And I know it gets
confusing because we can count hours and minutes
7:19and seconds, but "time" as a whole we consider
an uncountable noun. So we have to use "less." "I
7:26have less time now than before." Some other common
"quantifiers" include "a" or "an" and "some"—"a,"
7:38"an," or "some." So "a"—and this is just a
determiner that we use with countable nouns,
7:45right? "An apple," "a chair." Of course, we have
to say "an" whenever our noun starts with a vowel
7:53sound, is the standard basic rule, and then
if it starts with a consonant like "chair,"
8:00then we use "a chair," OK? "An apple," "a chair,"
just to make the pronunciation smooth and easy,
8:07right? So we only use "a" or "an" with
countable nouns. You'll never use it
8:12with an uncountable noun. You would never say, "I
have a happiness in my life." You would just say,
8:19"There's happiness in my life," or "There's some
happiness in my life." Something like that would
8:24be much more natural, because "happiness"
is an uncountable noun, and so we can't use
8:29"a" or "an" with those kinds of nouns. Now I have
some good news: "some," on the other hand, we
8:36can use with both countable nouns and uncountable
nouns, OK? So we could say "some apples." "I went
8:43shopping today and I bought some apples," or you
could say "some water." "I drank some water just
8:50a few minutes ago." So it works with both, and of
course "some" means an amount, a quantity, that's
8:57not specified—it's unspecific. Let's move on next
to some common mistakes that many, many, many
9:06English learners make when they are trying to make
sentences with countable and uncountable nouns,
9:13especially these ones. The uncountable ones are,
I think, the most difficult, because many people
9:18don't know that they are uncountable, and to an
extent, this is just trial and error. Spending
9:24a lot of time listening to native speakers speak
English, spending a lot of time reading English,
9:29you're going to notice patterns and be able
to pick up on these and be able to learn them.
9:34But there's also some shortcuts I can tell you
directly to maybe save you some time. So let's
9:39get right to it. There's a long list, and there
are more than these, but here are some of the
9:44most frequent errors that English learners make
with this grammar. So first up is "advice," OK?
9:51"Advice" is uncountable. We cannot say "advices"
in English. If we want to say a kind of plural
10:00version of it, we need to use it with a counter
word: "a piece of advice," or "a few pieces of
10:07advice," something like that. But you cannot say
"advices," like "I talked to my best friend and he
10:13told me some advices." Never, OK? Always singular,
always uncountable. Next, "news." OK, "I watch the
10:22news on TV." "News" is always just in this form
as "news." It's a unique word, just memorize it,
10:30don't try to change it ever, it's always going
to stay as "news," OK? Next one is "hair." I'm
10:36not an expert about "hair," as you can see, but
if you want to count "hair," it is uncountable.
10:44We consider "hair" to be just like one unit. And
if we wanted to count individual ones, we'd have
10:49to say "a strand of hair," "a piece of hair,"
OK? "Hair" is uncountable. Next, "money." Again,
10:59very confusing. We can count dollars, we can count
cents, we can't count "money." It is uncountable.
11:05So we have to say "an amount of money," or "a sum
of money." We need to use a counter expression
11:12like that. Next, "furniture." "Furniture"
is a category, and because it's a category,
11:18it can't be counted. It is uncountable. So again,
we need to use a counting expression with it,
11:25like "a piece of furniture," something like
that. "Luggage." We can never say "luggages"
11:32in English. It's not pluralized in that way. We
need to use a counting expression with it. We
11:37need to say "a piece of luggage" or "pieces of
luggage." We can count suitcases—one suitcase,
11:44two suitcases—but "luggage," because it's the
category again, it's the overall category,
11:50and often in English, the overall category is an
uncountable noun. So "luggage" is the category,
11:57but "suitcase," "bags," "purses," "backpacks," OK,
those things that fall under that main category
12:05of "luggage," those can all be counted. But the
category itself, no, it's uncountable. So we have
12:11to use, like I said, "a piece of luggage" or "two
pieces of luggage," this counting expression if we
12:17want to refer to "luggage" in that way. Next up,
"information." OK, "information" is uncountable.
12:23We can never say "informations." We can't
pluralize it like that. You will never see that
12:29in English. If we want to count it, we need to say
"a piece of information." Next up is "knowledge,"
12:35and we can't pluralize "knowledge." It is an
uncountable. We can't say "knowledges.” It doesn't
12:43exist in the English language. We would usually
just say "some knowledge" or "a bit of knowledge,"
12:50something like that. And then finally, we have
two interesting ones: "TV series," and we can say,
12:57"There are several TV series I like," or "I like
a TV series," OK? You have some flexibility there,
13:03but because of the pronunciation issue, we
don't really say "TV serieses," OK? "There
13:09are two TV serieses I don't like," it's just way
too difficult to pronounce. So you can just keep
13:15it in the singular even if you're talking about
more than one. And then "social media" as well.
13:21We just always use it as "social media." "I'm
a member of several different social media
13:26communities," or "I like using social media," "I
hate using social media." It's always going to
13:32stay as "social media." We'll never pluralize
it with an "S." Finally, before I let you go,
13:39some good news—it's always good to end with
some good news, right? There are several
13:43"quantifiers" that you can use with both countable
and uncountable nouns. So if you can't remember,
13:50Should I use this quantifier with count nouns or
uncountable nouns? I don't know, I can't remember,
13:55just use one of these, OK? They work for every
one: "some," you could say "some water," "some
14:02apples," works for both. "Any," "no," "a lot of,"
"lots of," "enough," OK? In fact, "a lot of" and
14:11"lots of" are very natural. I use them all the
time in my daily English, many, many times each
14:17day. And yeah, it's really great to use "a lot
of" or "lots of." It will make you sound really
14:23natural, and in fact I think even more natural
than using "many" or "much." "A lot" or "lots of."
14:29Some other really common quantifying phrases that
you will hear, and I use these all the time in my
14:36speaking as well: "tons of" or "a ton of," "loads
of" or "a load of.” That's more UK English maybe,
14:46if you listen to an episode with Anna you'll
hear her say that. Also, here's another UK phrase
14:52"heaps of" or I guess you could even say "a heap
of" as well, and "plenty of." So these are some
14:59really common, more spoken "quantifiers" that
we use all the time in our daily English. I
15:05personally use "tons of" and "a ton of." And
again, the good news about these "quantifiers"
15:11is we can use them with count nouns and non-count
nouns. It doesn't matter. You could say something
15:17like, "I had a ton of fun last weekend," and "fun"
is an uncountable noun, right? Or you could say,
15:23"I ate a ton of apples last weekend," and here,
of course, "a ton of" just means a huge amount,
15:30right? So I guess, yeah, I love apples
because I'm using them a lot as an example
15:35for this lesson. Anyways, guys, that's a quick
run-through about "nouns," "uncountable nouns"
15:41and "countable nouns." I hope that you are able
to learn something useful, and let's practice
15:46all month in February using this grammar, and
I think by the end of the month you'll be a
15:51natural at using this grammar. So good luck with
the challenge everyone. I look forward to seeing
15:56your sentences and your practice all month. Please
take care, and I'll talk to you later. Bye bye.
