English A2 · Countable and uncountable nouns
Inglês Nível A2 Tópico 8 4:31 Narração em inglês · Legendas em inglês + 中文 gravadas
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Transcrição
English divides nouns into two families. Countable nouns can be counted on your fingers: a book, two books, many books. Uncountable nouns are soup: you cannot count soup, you can only have more of it. Some water, much money, no a and no plural s. And homework is uncountable because no matter how much you finish, more remains. It cannot be counted, only survived.
Two families, two toolkits. Countable: a book, many books, a few books, some books, how many books. Uncountable: no a, no plural; much water, a little water, some water, how much water. Some and any serve both families. And the two small-amount words carry a mood: a few friends and a little money mean enough, positive. Drop the a, and few friends and little money mean almost none, said with a sad face. One letter of difference, a whole mood.
Pause and choose. How much money do you have? Money is soup, so much. Many belongs to things you can count on your fingers, and your wallet already knows the answer is little, not few.
The famous uncountables fool everyone, because they feel countable in Chinese. Homework, never homeworks: I have a lot of homework — a whole life of it, in fact. Money, never moneys. Information, advice and news take no s, ever: some good advice, and the news is sad — singular verb, because the s in news is a historical accident, not a plural. Water, milk, bread and rice, the drinks and staples. And music and furniture. All soup.
Pause and choose. The news is good today. The s in news is a historical accident, not a plural; the word is singular. One soup, one verb. Are and were follow the spelling into a trap, and be stays in its pyjamas.
To count soup, you need a container. A bottle of water, a cup of tea, a piece of bread, a piece of advice, a piece of homework — yes, teachers say that one with a smile. Then the container takes the plural: two bottles of water, three pieces of advice. This is exactly the measure-word logic of yi ping shui, so you already own this machine. English just owns fewer measures and uses them only for the soup family.
Pause and choose. A piece of bread. Bread and rice are soup: some bread, or a piece of bread, or from the bakery, a loaf. A bread and some breads treat soup as fingers, and a rice counts grains nobody counted.
The s temptation is the topic in one slide. Homeworks, moneys, informations, advices: all impossible, because these nouns are soup. Much homework, a piece of information, some advice. Many money is doubly wrong, because money is soup and soup takes much. And the soup family takes a singular verb: the homework is hard; the news is sad. The soup does not grow an s, no matter how much of it there is — and with homework, there is always much.
Take inventory of your life, family by family. Countable: three books, two pens, a few friends, many dreams. Uncountable: much homework, a little money, some music, a lot of rice. And one piece of advice: never count your homework aloud. It hears you and grows. Dreams are countable and homework is not; the world is unfair like that.
Pause for four checks. How much money do you have: money is soup. Some good advice: advice never grows an s. A few friends: with the a, it is enough; without it, sad. And two bottles of water: the container takes the plural. Next topic: the modal verbs, can's whole family of may, must, should and might.