A noun can be countable or uncountable:

Countable Uncountable
0 I eat a banana every day. 0 I eat rice every day.
0 I like bananas. 0 I like rice.

Banana is a countable noun. Rice is an uncountable noun.

A countable noun can be singular (banana) or An uncountable noun has only one form (rice).
plural (bananas).
We can use numbers with countable nouns. We cannot use numbers with uncountable
So we can say 'one banana', 'two bananas' nouns. We cannot say 'one rice', 'two rices'
etc. etc.
Examples of nouns usually countable: Examples of nouns usually uncountable:
0 Kate was singing a song. 0 Kate was listening to (some) music.
0 There's a nice beach near here. 0 There's sand in my shoes.
0 Do you have a ten-pound note? 0 Do you have any money?
0 It wasn't your fault. It was an accident. 0 It wasn't your fault. It was bad luck.
0 There are no batteries in the radio. 0 There is no electricity in this house.
0 We don't have enough cups. 0 We don't have enough water.

You can use a/an with singular countable You cannot normally use a/an with
nouns: uncountable nouns. We do not say 'a sand ',
a beach a student an umbrella 'a music', 'a rice'.
But you can often use a ... of. For example:
a bowl / a packet / a grain of rice
You cannot use singular countable nouns You can use uncountable nouns alone
alone (without a/the/my etc.): (without the/my/some etc.):
0 I want a banana. (not I want banana) 0 I eat rice every day.
0 There's been an accident. (not There's 0 There's blood on your shirt.
been accident) 0 Can you hear music?
You can use plural countable nouns alone:
0 I like bananas. (= bananas in general)
0 Accidents can be prevented.

You can use some and any with plural You can use some and any with uncountable
countable nouns: nouns:
0 We sang some songs. 0 We listened to some music.
0 Did you buy any apples? 0 Did you buy any apple juice?
We use many and few with plural countable We use much and little with uncountable
nouns: nouns:
0 We didn't take many pictures. 0 We didn't do much shopping.
0 I have a few things to do. 0 I have a little work to do.
 .. ·- I, •• '

Unit . ,
Exercises 69 ~~..
.
• Some of these sentences need a/an. Correct the sentences where necessary.
1 Joe goes ev~rywhere by bike. He hasn't g__~-c~r. He hllSn't. got. o.., G()j' .

2 Helen was l1stening to m usic when I arrived. Ok

3 We went to very nice restau rant last weekend.
4 I brush my teeth with toothpast e.
5 I use toothbrush to brush my teeth .
6 Can you tel1 me if there's bank near here?
7 My brother works for insurance company in Frankfurt.
8 I don't like violence.
9 Can you smell paint?
10 When we were in Rome, we stayed in big hot et.
11 We need petrol. I hope we come to petrol station soon.
12 I wonder if you can help me. I have problem.
13 I like your suggestion. lt's very interesting idea.
14 John has interview for job tomorrow.
15 I like volleyball. lt's good game.
16 Lisa doesn't usually wear jewellery.
17 Jane was wearing beautiful necklace.

• Complete the sentences using the following words. Use a/an where necessary.

acciElent biscuit blood coat decision electricity

interview key moment music question sugar

1 It wasn't your fault. It was .. o..n . CA..CciGlent..

2 Listen! Can you hear . mlA.sic . ?
3 I couldn't get into the house because I didn't have
4lt's very warm today. Why are you wearing . ?
5Do you take in your coffee?
6Are you hungry? Would you like with your coffee?
7Our lives would be very difficult without
8'I had . fora job yesterday.' 'Did you? How did it go?'
9The heart pumps through the body.
10 Excuse me, but can I ask you ?
11 l'm not ready yet. Can you wait .. , please?
12 We can't delay much longer. We have to make soon .

• Complete the sentences using the following words. Sometimes the word needs to be plural
(-s), and sometimes you need to use a/an.
air day friend joke language meat
patience people pictuFe queue space umbrella

1 I had my camera, but I didn't take any .. pi.clu.r~s

2 There are seven .. . . in a week.
3 A vegetarian is a person who doesn't eat .
4 Outside the cinema there was . of people waiting to see the film.
5 l'm not very good at telling .
6 Last night I went out with some of mine.
7 There were very few in town today. The streets were almost empty.
8 l'm going out fora walk. I need some fresh .
9 Gary always wants things quickly. He doesn't have much
10 I think it's going to rain. Do you have I could borrow?
11 Do you speak any foreign
12 Our flat is very small. We don't have much

139
11111
 ,. -~,.

Countable and uncountable 2·· :;_ ._. :,_._:rl/'t~,~~~,. __. _

Many nouns can be used as countable or uncountable nouns, usually w1th a d1fference in meaning.
Compare:

Countable Uncountable
Did you hear a noise just now? I can 't work here. There 's t oo much
(= a specific noise) noise. (= noise in general)
I bought a paper to read. r J I need some paper to write on.
(= a newspaper) (= material for writing on)
There's a hair in my soup! l J You've got very long hair. (not hairs)
(= one single hair} (= all the hair on your head)
You can stay with us. There's a spare r J You can't sit here. There isn't room.
room. (= a room in a house) (= space)
l I had some interesting experiences , J They offered me t he job because I had a
while I was travelling. (= things that lot of experience. (not experiences)
happened t o m e)
Enjoy your trip. Have a good time! 0 I can't wait. I don't have time.

Coffee/tea/juice/beer etc. (drinks) are normally uncountable:

0 I don't like coffee very much.
But you can say a coffee (= a cup of coffee), two coffees (= two cups} etc. :
U Two coffees and an orange juice, please.
The following nouns are usually uncountable:

accommodation behaviour damage luck permission traffic

advice bread furniture luggage progress weather
baggage chaos information news scenery work

You cannot use a/an with these nouns:

0 l'm going to buy some bread. or ... a loaf of bread. (nota bread}
0 Enjoy your holiday! I hope you have good weather. (nota good weather)
These nouns are not usually plural (so we do not say 'breads', 'furnitures· etc.):
0 Where are you going to put all your furniture ? (not furnitures)
0 Let me know if you need more information. (not informations)
News is uncountable, not plural:
0 The news was very depressing. (not The news were)
Travet (noun) means 'travelling in general' (uncountable} . We do not say 'a travet' to mean a trip
or a journey:
O They spend a lot of money on travet.
O We had a very good trip/journey. (not a good travet)
Compare these countable and uncountable nouns:

Countable Uncountable
0 l'm looking fora job. 0 l'm looking for work. (nota work)
0 What a beautiful view! 0 What beautiful scenery!
0 lt's a nice day today. 0 lt's nice weather today.
0 We had a lot of bags and cases. 0 We had a lot of baggage/luggage.
0 These chairs are m ine. 0 This furniture is mine.
0 That's a good suggestion. 0 That's good advice.
 ...,__ . . . .f • :

Unit
Exercises 70 n°"
- Which of the underlined parts of these sentences is correct?
1 'Did you hear --flei.se- / a noise just now7' 'No, I didn 't hear anything.' (a noise is correct)
2 a lf you want to know the news, you can read paper / a paper.
b I want to print same documents, but the printer is out of paper / papers.
3 a Light / A light comes from the sun.
b I thought there was somebody in the house because there was light / a light on inside.
4 a I was in a hurry this morning. I didn 't have time / a time for breakfast.
b 'Did you have a good holiday?' 'Yes, we had wonderful time / a wonderful time.'
5 This is nice room / a nice room. Did you decorate it yourself?
6 Sue was very helpful. She gave us some very useful advice / advices.
7 Did you have nice weather / a nice weather when you were away?
8 We were very unfortunate. We had bad luck / a bad luck.
9 Is it difficult to find a work / job at the moment?
10 Our travet/ journey from Paris to Moscow by train was very tiring.
11 When the fire alarm rang, there was total chaos I a total chaos.
12 I had to buy a bread / some bread because I wanted to make some sandwiches.
13 Bad news don't / doesn't make people happy.
14 Your hair is I Your hairs are too long. You should have it/ them cut.
15 The damage / The damages caused by the storm will cost a lotto repair.

- Complete the sentences using the following words. Use the plural (-s) where necessary.

a~vfce "' c.h~ir experie~ce experience f ~ure ..hmr

info,a:flation job luggage permission progress work

1 I didn't have much w.gg~e - just two small bags.

2 They'll tell you all you want to know. They'll give you plenty of
3 There is room for everybody to sit down. There are plenty of
4 We have no , not even a bed or a table.
5 'What does Alan look like?' 'He's got a long beard and very short
6 ' Carla's English is better than it was. She's made
'--7 Mike is unemployed. He can't get a
8 Mike is unemployed. He can't get
9 lf you want to leave early, you have to ask for
10 I didn't know what to do. So I asked Chris for
11 I don't think Dan should get the job. He doesn't have enough
12 Nicola has done many interesting things. She could write a book about her

- What do you say in these situations? Use a word from Section B (luggage, weather etc.) in
each sentence.
1 Your friends have just arrived at the station. You can't see any cases or bags.
You ask them: Do HOO ho..ve MH w.gg~e .
2 You go into the tourist office. You want to know about places to see in the town.
You say: l'd like
3 You area student. You want your teacher to advise you about which courses to do.
You say: Can you give me
4 You want to watch the news on TV, but you don't know when it is on.
You ask your friend: What time ?
5 You are at the top of a mountain. You can see a very long way. lt's beautiful.
You say: It , isn't it?
6 You look out of the window. The weather is horrible: cold, wet and windy.
You say: What

141
Countable nouns with a/an and some
Countable nouns can be singular or plural:

a dog a child the evening this party an umbrella

dogs some children the evenings these parties two umbrellas

Before singular countable nouns you can use a/ an:

Bye! Have a nice evening.
_ Do you need an umbrella?
You cannot use singular countable nouns alone (without a/the/my etc.) :
:::- She never wears a hat. (not She never wears hat)
'=. Be careful of the dog. (not Be careful of dog)
,.__ What a beautiful day!
,. . . . l've got a headache.

We use a/an ... to say what kind of thing something is, or what kind of person somebody is:
= That's a nice table.
In the plural we use the noun alone (not some ...):
C Those are nice chairs. (not some nice chairs)
Compare singular and plural:

0 A dog is an animal. C Degs are animals.

0 l'm an optimist. CJ We're optimists.
0 Tom's father isa doctor. 0 Mest of my friends are students.
0 Are you a good driver? 0 Are they good students?
0 Jane isa really nice person. 0 Jane's parents are really nice people.
0 What a lovely dress! 0 What awful shoes!

We say that somebody has a long nose / a nice face I blue eyes / small hands etc. :

0 Jack hasa long nose. 0 Jack has blue eyes.

(not the long nose) (not the blue eyes)

Remember to use a/an when you say what somebody's job is:
0 Sandra isa nurse. (not Sandra is nurse)
0 Would you like to be an English teacher?

You can use some with plural countable nouns. We use some in two ways.

(1) Some = a number of / a few of / a pair of:

0 l've seen some good movies recently. (not l've seen good movies)
0 Some friends of mine are coming to stay at the weekend.
0 I need some new sunglasses. (= a new pair of sunglasses)
Do not use some when you are talking about things in general (see Unit 75):
0 1 love bananas. (not some bananas)
0 My aunt isa writer. She writes books. (not some books)
(2) Some = some but not all:
0 Some children learn very quickly. (but not all children)
0 Tomorrow there will be rain in some places, but most of the country will be dry.
 r ·- l1Y
, uni·t 1
''

exercises 71
• What are these things? Use a dictionary if necessary.
1
1 an ant? It s o..n Lnsecl. 7 Earth, Mars, Venus and Jupiter?
2 ants and bees? Th~'re i-nsec-es.
3 a cauliflowe r? 8 a tulip?
4 chess? 9 the Nile, the Rhine and the Mekong?
5 a pigeon, an eagle and a crow?
10 a violin, a trumpet anda flute?
6 a skyscraper?

Who were these people?

11 Beethoven? He wo..s a. c.omposer . 15 Marilyn Monroe?
12 Shakespeare?
13 Albert Einstein? 16 Michael Jackson and John Lennon?

14 Washington, Lincoln and Kennedy? 17 Van Gogh, Renoir and Picasso?

• Read about what these people do, and say what their jobs are. Choose from:

cJ,ef interpret er journalis t nurse

pluml>er surgeon tour guide waiter
. t s ·in h osp1·t aI. .. .S~e'
1 Sara h Iooks aft er pa t 1en .. .s ..o.,. . nurse
.. . ..
2 Gary works in a restaurant. He brings the food to the tables. He
3 Jane writes articles for a newspaper.
4 Kevin works in a hospital. He operates on people.
5 Jonathan cooks in a restaurant.
6 Dave installs and repairs water pipes.
7 Martina takes visitors round her city and tells them about it. She ..
8 Lisa translates what people are sayingfro m one language into another so that they can
understand each other.

• Put in a/an or some where necessary. lf no word is necessary , leave the space empty.
1 l've seen some good films recently.
2 What's wrong with you? Have you got ~ headache?
3 I know a lot of people. Most of them are - students.
4 When I was .... child, I used to be very shy.
5 Would you like to be ............ actor?
6 Questions, questions, questions ! You're always asking questions !
7 What beautiful garden!
8 birds, for example the penguin, cannot fly.
9 Do you like staying in . ..... hotets?
10 l've been walking for three hours. l've got .... sore feet.
11 I don't feel very well this morning. l've got ...... sore throat.
12 Maria speaks English, but not very much.
13 lt's a shame we don't have · · camera. l'd like to take . · t ure o f th at h ouse.
........ p1c
14 Those are nice shoes. Where did you get them?
15 l'm going shopping. I want to buy new shoes.
16 You need
visa to visit countries , but not all of them.
17 Jane is
teacher. Her parents were teachers too.
18 I don't believe
him. He's liar. He's always telling . lies.
 UN IT 69
69.1
3 We wen t to a very nice restaurant ...
4 OK
5 I use a too thb rus h ...
6 ... if there's a bank near here?
7 ... for an insurance com pan y
8 OK
9 OK
10 ... we stayed in a big hot el.
11 ... I hop e we com e to a pet rol
stat ion soon.
12 .. . I have a pro blem .
13 ... lt's a very inte rest i ng idea.
14 John has an inte rvie w fora job
tom orro w.
15 ... lt's a goo d gam e.
16 OK
17 Jane was wea ring a bea utif ul
necklace.
 69.2
3 a key
4 a coat
5 sugar
6 a biscuit
7 electricity
8 an interview
9 blood
'I.
10 a question
11 a moment
12 a decision
69.3
2 days
3 meat
4 a queue
5 jokes
6 friends
7 people
•
8 air
9 patience
10 an umbrella
11 languages
'
12 space
 UN IT7 0
70.1
2 a a paper
b paper
3 a Light
b a light
4 a time
b a wond erful time
•
5 a n1ce room -- - '111,..

6 advice
7 nice weather
8 badl uck
9 job
•
10 Journ ey
11 total chaos
12 some bread
13 doesn't
14 Your hair is ... it
15 The damage
70.2
2 information
3 c,hairs
4 furniture
5 hair
6 progress
7 job
8 work
• •
9 perm1ss1on
10 advice
•
11 exper,ence
•
12 exper1ences
 70.3
2 l'd like some information about
places to see in the town.
3 Can you give me (some) advice
about whicj, courses to do? / .. .
courses I can do?
4 What time is the news (on)?
5 lt's a beautiful view, isn't it?
6 What horrible/awful weather!

UNIT 71
71.1
3 lt's a vegetable.
4 lt's a game. I lt's a board game.
5 They're birds.
6 lt's a (tall/high} building.
7 They're planets.
8 lt's a flower.
9 They're rivers. -
10 They're musical instruments.
12 He was a writer / a poet I a
playwright / a dramatist.
13 He was a scientist / a physicist.
14 They ~ere US presidents /
American presidents / presidents of
the USA.
15 She was an actress / a film actress /
a film star / a -movie star.
16 They were singers.
17 They were painters / artists . .
 71.2
2 He's a waiter.
3 She's a journalist.
4 He's a surgeon.
S He's a chef.
6 He's a plumber.
7 She's a tour guide.
8 She's an interpreter.

71 .3
4 a
5 an
6 ~ {You're always asking questions!)
r-
7 a
8 Some
9 - {Do you like staying in hotels?)
10 - {l've got sore feet.)
11 a
12 some
13 a ... a
14 - {Those are nice shoes.)
15 some
16 You need a visa to visit some
countries
17 Jane isa teacher. Her parents were
teachers too.
18 He's a liar. He's always tell ing lies.