Count Nouns vs. Non-Count Nouns

Count nouns

Can be counted as one or more.

• pen, computer, bottle, spoon, desk, cup, television, chair, shoe, finger, flower, camera, stick, balloon, book, table, comb, etc.

Take an s to form the plural.

• pens, computers, bottles, spoons, desks, cups, televisions, chairs, shoes, fingers, flowers, cameras, sticks, balloons, books, tables, combs, etc.

Work with expressions such as (a few, few, many, some, every, each, these, and the number of).

• a few pens, a few computers, many bottles, some spoons, every desk, each cup, these televisions, the number of chairs, a few shoes, a few fingers, many flowers, some cameras, every stick, each balloon, these books, the number of tables, many combs, etc.

Work with appropriate articles (a, an, or the).

• a pen, the computer, a bottle, the spoon, a desk, the cup, a television, the chair, a shoe, the finger, a flower, the camera, a stick, the balloon, a book, the table, a comb, etc.

Do NOT work with much (for example, you would never say much pens or much computers). 

Non-count nouns

Cannot be counted. They usually express a group or a type.

• water, wood, ice, air, oxygen, English, Spanish, traffic, furniture, milk, wine, sugar, rice, meat, flour, soccer, sunshine, etc.

Generally cannot be pluralized.

Work both with and without an article (a, an, or the), depending on the context of the sentence.

• Sugar is sweet.
• The sunshine is beautiful.
• I drink milk.
• He eats rice.
• We watch soccer together.
• The wood is burning.

Work with expressions such as (some, any, enough, this, that, and much).

• We ate some rice and milk.
• I hope to see some sunshine today.
• This meat is good.
• She does not speak much Spanish.
• Do you see any traffic on the road?
• That wine is very old.

Do NOT work with expressions such as (these, those, every, each, either, or neither).

[Quiz]
Choose all of the non-count nouns in the following list:

wine, student, pen, water, wind, milk, computer, furniture, cup, rice, box, watch, potato, wood.

Answer:-

wine, water, wind, milk, furniture, rice, wood.

Flying Carpet

A Dog Story

Singular and Plural Nouns

A noun names a person, place, thing, or idea.

Usually, the first page of a grammar book tells you about nouns. Nouns give names of concrete or abstract things in our lives. As babies learn "mom," "dad," or "milk" as their first word, nouns should be the first topic when you study a foreign language.

For the plural form of most nouns, add s.

• bottle – bottles
• cup – cups
• pencil – pencils
• desk – desks
• sticker – stickers
• window – windows

For nouns that end in ch, x, s, or s sounds, add es.

• box – boxes
• watch – watches
• moss – mosses
• bus – buses

For nouns ending in f or fe, change f to v and add es.

• wolf – wolves
• wife – wives
• leaf – leaves
• life – lives

Some nouns have different plural forms.

• child – children
• woman – women
• man – men
• mouse – mice
• goose – geese

Nouns ending in vowels like y or o do not have definite rules.

• baby – babies
• toy – toys
• kidney – kidneys
• potato – potatoes
• memo – memos
• stereo – stereos

A few nouns have the same singular and plural forms.

• sheep – sheep
• deer – deer
• series – series
• species – species

Today Learning--Greeting - Basic

There are many ways to greet someone. We'll learn about the most common way to greet someone in this lesson. I'll give a variety of example sentences.

Greeting someone you never met:
"Hi, my name is Steve. It's nice to meet you."
You can respond to this by saying,
"It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Jack."

Another common question to ask is

"What do you do for a living?"

You can respond to this by saying,

"I work at a restaurant."
"I work at a bank."
"I work in a software company."
"I'm a dentist."

Usually, you will not need to ask for a name. It is implied that each person should say their name. But in case they don't, you can ask,

"What is your name?"

Many times, I don't hear the name. If you would like for them to repeat their name, you can say,

"What was that again?"
"Excuse me?"
"Pardon me?"

Magic English

Learning English is fun with video clip