It was one of the favorite subjects of Norma, my American teacher and we worked a lot on this: drills at every lesson!
NB: "drill" is a word which was used by Patrick, another former English teacher of mine. As I don't find the meaning in my dictionary, I prefer to explain what I mean here: in his head, a drill is a type of exercise with many questions at high frequency in the session and also repeated at each session to get the "rule" or the list to enter in the brain and acquire a reflex.
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In English language, there are many words that don't accept a plural form: they are said uncountable.
What are uncountable nouns?
Uncountable nouns are materials, concepts, information, etc. which are not individual objects and can not be counted.
- uncountable nouns are always singular. Use the singular form of the verb with uncountable nouns.
- don't use "a", "one" or "a few" before an uncountable word but "some" (for several countable words, prefer "a few" to "some").
- never use many but much and, of course, never a number: one, two, three... never "a few" or "several" and the particles refering to quantities
- "some" is also used with countable nouns for an unknown quantity but the word is at the plural then: don't confuse
- "a lot of" may be used with uncountables.
- if you want to speak about a specific uncountable word, don't say "a": you're obliged to say "a piece of..." There are forms that express countable concepts: these measurements or containers are countable
- some uncountable nouns in English are countable in other languages. This can be confusing! Easy to confuse uncountable nouns!
A few such uncountable nouns:
- accommodation
- advice
- baggage
- behavior
- bread
- business
- cash
- cheese
- equipment
- furniture
- garbage
- homework
- information
- knowledge
- luggage
- money
- news
- pasta
- permission
- progress
- research
- rubbish
- scenery
- traffic
- travel
- understanding
- water
- weather
- wood
- work
- clothes
- contents
- goods
- means
- tidings
- outskirts
- jeans
- surroundings
- different types of food
- Things made up of small pieces
- Wholes composed of individual parts
- Fields of study and professional fields
- Abstract ideas
- Liquids
- gases
- Solids, minerals, and elements
- Sports and Recreational Activities
- Natural Phenomena
- Medical Conditions
- Scientific processes and procedures
counter-examples:
people, police, etc. collective wordsare not uncountable words: they are plural... (NB: Americans tend to use collective nouns as singular nouns)fish, sheep, etc.are not uncountable words.
- There's some water in that pitcher
- There's some cold beer in the fridge
As already said, use measurements, containers, quantity expressions to get countable objects:
- accommodation - a place to stay
- advice - a piece of advice
- baggage - a piece of baggage
- bread - a slice of bread, a loaf of bread
- butter - a bar of butter
- cheese - a slice, a chunk, a piece of cheese
- equipment - a piece of equipment
- furniture - a piece of furniture
- garbage - a piece of garbage
- information - a piece of information
- ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard - a bottle of, a tube of ketchup, etc.
- knowledge - a fact
- (liquids: water, beer, wine, etc. - a glass, a bottle, a jug of water, etc.)
- luggage - a piece of luggage, a bag, a suitcase
- mayonnaise - a bottle of, a tube of ketchup, etc.
- meat - a piece, a slice, a pound of meat
- money - a note, a coin
- mustard - a bottle of, a tube of ketchup, etc.
- news - a piece of news
- pasta - a plate of pasta, a serving of pasta
- research - a piece of research, a research project
- (sauce: ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard - a bottle of, a tube of ketchup, etc.)
- travel - a journey, a trip
- water - a glass of water
- work - a job, a position
Links:
- EnglishMistakesWelcome.com
- ESL Monster
- Scribd (Spanish)
- James Abela ELT (PDF) very long list
- About.com
gM
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