NOUN

Singular count nouns cannot be used alone. They must have a determiner:

The book; that English teacher; a wish; my latest idea

Plural count nouns do not have a determiner when they refer to people or things as
a group:

Computers are very expensive.

Do you sell old books?

TEST

The fairy told the girl she could make three ________.
wish
wishes

I think her ________ watch far too much television.

child
children

Look! The ________ has just stolen that man's hat!

monkey
monkeys

It's difficult being a ________ these days.

parent
parents

Why do ________ always come in threes?

bus
buses

Does anyone know the ________ to the station?

way
ways

________ are usually shorter than men.

Woman
Women

A lot of ________ use this street.

lorry
lorries

He's the sort of ________ you can trust.

person
people

I can hear something in the roof. Have you got ________?

 mouse
mice
The ________ they wanted to buy has been sold.
house
houses

The most interesting ________ I have visited are in Asia.

country
countries

(Uncountable nouns are for the things that we cannot count with numbers. They may be the
names for abstract ideas or qualities or for physical objects that are too small or too amorphous
to be counted (liquids, powders, gases, etc.). Uncountable nouns are used with a singular verb.
They usually do not have a plural form.)
We do not use uncount nouns in the plural and we do not use them with the indefinite
article, a/an.

We ate a lot of foods > We ate a lot of food

We bought some new furnitures > We bought some new furniture
That’s a useful information > That’s useful information

We can use some quantifiers with uncount nouns:

He gave me some useful advice.

They gave us a lot of information.

Uncount nouns often refer to:

 Substances: food; water; wine; salt; bread; iron

 Human feelings or qualities: anger; cruelty; happiness; honesty; pride;

 Activities: help; sleep; travel; work

 Abstract ideas: beauty; death; fun; life

Common uncount nouns

There are some common nouns in English, like accommodation, which are uncount
nouns even though they have plurals in other languages:

advice baggage equipment furniture homework information

knowledge luggage machinery money news traffic

Let me give you some advice.

How much luggage have you got?

If we want to make these things countable, we use expressions like:

a piece of... pieces of... a bit of... bits of... an item of... items of...

Let me give you a piece of advice.

That’s a useful piece of equipment.
We bought a few bits of furniture for the new apartment.
She had six separate items of luggage.

but we do not use accommodation, money and traffic in this way.

I like camping, but you have to take a lot of

 Equipment.

Her room looks empty; there are only a few pieces of

 Furniture.

common problems with count/uncount nouns

1: Uncount nouns used as count nouns

Although substances are usually uncount nouns...

 Would you like some cheese?
Coffee keeps me awake at night.
Wine makes me sleep.

... they can be also used as count nouns:

I’d like a coffee please. = I’d like a [cup of] coffee.

May I have a white wine. = May I have a [glass of] white wine.

They sell a lot of coffees. = They sell a lot of [different kinds of] coffee.

I prefer white wines to red. = I prefer [different kinds of] white wine to red.

They had over twenty cheeses on They had over twenty [types of] cheese on
=
sale. sale.

This is an excellent soft cheese. = This [kind of] soft cheese is excellent.

2: Some nouns have both a count and an uncount form:

We should always have hope.

George had hopes of promotion.
Travel is a great teacher.
Where did you go on your travels?

3: Nouns with two meanings

Some nouns have two meanings, one count and the other non count:

His life was in danger.

There is a serious danger of fire.
 Linguistics is the study of language.
Is English a difficult language?

It’s made of paper.

The Times is an excellent paper.

Other words like this are:

business death industry marriage power property

tax time victory use work

4: Uncount nouns that end in -s

Some uncount nouns end in -s so they look like plurals even though they are singular
nouns.

These nouns generally refer to:

Subjects of study: mathematics, physics, economics, etc.

Activities: gymnastics, athletics, etc.

Games: cards, darts, billiards, etc.

Diseases: mumps, measles, rabies, etc.

Economics is a very difficult subject.

Billiards is easier than pool or snooker.

5: Group nouns
 Some nouns, like army, refer to groups of people, animals or things, and we can use
them either as singular nouns or as plural nouns.

army audience committee company crew enemy

family flock gang government group herd

media public regiment staff team

We can use these group nouns either as singular nouns or as plural nouns:

 My family is very dear to me.

I have a large family. They are very dear to me. (= The members of my family…)

 The government is very unpopular.

The government are always changing their minds.

Sometimes we think of the group as a single thing:

 The audience always enjoys the show.

 The group consists of two men and three women.

Sometimes we think of the group as several individuals;

 The audience clapped their hands.

 The largest group are the boys.

The names of many organisations and teams are also group nouns, but they
are usually plural in spoken English:

 Barcelona are winning 2-0.

 The United Oil Company are putting prices up by 12%.

6: Two-part nouns

A few plural nouns, like binoculars, refer to things that have two parts.
glasses jeans knickers pincers pants pliers

pyjamas scissors shorts spectacles tights trainers

trousers tweezers

These binoculars were very expensive

Those trousers are too long.

To make it clear we are talking about one of these items, we use a pair of …

I need a new pair of spectacles.

I’ve bought a pair of blue jeans.

If we want to talk about more than one, we use pairs of … :

We’ve got three pairs of scissors, but they are all blunt.
I always carry two pairs of binoculars.

Choose the correct sentence.

CorrectTea is grown in Sri Lanka.

A tea is grown in Sri Lanka.

Choose the correct sentence.

IncorrectDo you eat a cheese before or after your meal?

Do you eat cheese before or after your meal?

Choose the correct sentence.

It was difficult marriage.

CorrectIt was a difficult marriage.

Choose the correct sentence.

IncorrectThat's very interesting property. How much is it?

That's a very interesting property. How much is it?

Choose the correct sentence.

It's not easy to run a business and raise a family.

IncorrectIt's not easy to run business and raise a family.

Choose the correct sentence.

Physics are not my best subject.

CorrectPhysics is not my best subject.

Choose the correct sentence.

Can you lend me some scissors?

IncorrectCan you lend me a scissors?

Choose the correct sentence.

I need to buy a new trousers.

CorrectI need to buy some new trousers.

ADJECTIVES

We use adjectives to describe nouns.

Most adjectives can be used in front of a noun…:

They have a beautiful house.

We saw a very exciting film last night.

or after a link verb like be, look or feel:

 Their house is beautiful.
That film looks interesting.

A LOT OF ADJECTIVES ARE MADE FROM VERBS BY ADDING -ING OR -ED:

-ing adjectives:

The commonest -ing adjectives are:

amusing shocking surprising frightening interesting disappointing exciting

tiring worrying boring terrifying annoying

If you call something interesting you mean it interests you.

If you call something frightening you mean it frightens you.

I read a very interesting article in the newspaper today.

That Dracula film was absolutely terrifying.

-ed adjectives:

The commonest –ed adjectives are:

annoyed bored frightened worried tired closed excited delighted disappointed

If something annoys you, you can say you feel annoyed. If something interests you,
you can say you are interested.

The children had nothing to do. They were bored.

SOMETIMES WE USE MORE THAN ONE ADJECTIVE IN FRONT OF A NOUN:

He was a nice intelligent young man.
She had a small round black wooden box.

Adjectives usually come in this order:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

General Specific
Size Shape Age Colour Nationality Material
opinion opinion
Example:

a nice handsome young man;

a big black American car;

that horrible big fierce dog

COMPARATIVE AND SUPERLATIVE ADJECTIVES

We use comparative adjectives to describe people and things:

This car is certainly better but it’s much more expensive.

I’m feeling happier now.
We need a bigger garden

We use than when we want to compare one thing with another:

She is two years older than me.

New York is much bigger than Boston.
He is a better player than Ronaldo.
France is a bigger country than Britain.

When we want to describe how something or someone changes we can use two
comparatives with and:

The balloon got bigger and bigger.

Everything is getting more and more expensive.
Grandfather is looking older and older.

We often use the with comparative adjectives to show that one thing depends on
another:

When you drive faster it is more dangerous

> The faster you drive, the more dangerous it is.
When they climbed higher it got colder
> The higher they climbed, the colder it got.

Superlative adjectives:

We use the with a superlative:

It was the happiest day of my life.

Everest is the highest mountain in the world.
That’s the best film I have seen this year.
I have three sisters, Jan is the oldest and Angela is the youngest .

TENSIFIERS:
(Intermediate)

We use words like very, really and extremely to make adjectives stronger:

It’s a very interesting story

Everyone was very excited.
It’s a really interesting story.
Everyone was extremely excited

We call these words intensifiers. Other intensifiers are:

amazingly exceptionally incredibly

remarkably particularly unusually

We also use enough to say more about an adjective, but enough comes after its
adjective:

If you are seventeen you are old enough to drive a car.

I can’t wear those shoes. They’re not big enough.

Intensifiers with strong adjectives:

Strong adjectives are words like:

enormous, huge = very big

tiny = very small
brilliant = very clever
awful; terrible; disgusting; dreadful = very bad
certain = very sure
excellent; perfect; ideal; wonderful; splendid = very good
delicious = very tasty

We do not normally use very with these adjectives. We do not say something is "very
enormous" or someone is "very brilliant".

With strong adjectives, we normally use intensifiers like:

absolutely completely totally utterly

really exceptionally particularly quite

 The film was absolutely awful.
He was an exceptionally brilliant child.
The food smelled really disgusting.

MITIGATORS
Mitigators are the opposite of intensifiers. When we want to make an adjective less
strong we use these words:

fairly - rather - quite

By the end of the day we were rather tired.

The film wasn’t great but it was quite exciting.

and in informal English: pretty

We had a pretty good time at the party.

We call these words mitigators.

Warning

quite

When we use quite with a strong adjective it means the same as absolutely:

The food was quite awful. = The food was absolutely awful.
As a child he was quite brilliant. = As a child he was absolutely brilliant.

Mitigators with comparatives:

We use these words and phrases as mitigators:

a bit - just a bit - a little - a little bit - just a little bit - rather - slightly

She’s a bit younger than I am.

It takes two hours on the train but it is a little bit longer by road
This one is rather bigger (than the other one).

We use slightly and rather as mitigators with comparative adjectives in front of a

noun:

This is a slightly more expensive model than that one.

This is a rather bigger one than the other.
Adjectives as intensifiers:

We use some adjectives as intensifiers:

absolute
total - complete
utter - perfect
real

We say:

He’s a complete idiot.

They were talking utter nonsense.

… but we do not say:

The idiot was complete.

The nonsense they were talking was utter.

noun modifiers
We often use two nouns together to show that one thing is a part of something
else:

the village church; the car door; the kitchen window; the chair leg;
my coat pocket; London residents

Warning

We do not use a possessive form for these things. We do not talk about:

The car’s door; the kitchen’s window; the chair’s leg

We can use noun modifiers to show what something is made of:

a gold watch; a leather purse; a metal box

We often use noun modifiers with nouns ending in -er and -ing:

an office worker; a jewellery maker; a potato peeler; a shopping list; a swimming

lesson; a walking holiday.

We use measurements, age or value as noun modifiers:

a thirty kilogram suitcase; a two minute rest; a five thousand euro platinum
watch; a fifty kilometre journey;

We often put two nouns together and readers/listeners have work out what they
mean. So:
 an ice bucket = a bucket to keep ice in

 an ice cube = a cube made of ice

 an ice breaker = a ship which breaks ice

 the ice age = the time when much of the Earth was covered in ice.

Sometimes we find more than two nouns together:

London office workers; grammar practice exercises

Position of noun modifiers

Noun modifiers come after adjectives:

The old newspaper seller

A tiring fifty kilometre journey

Adverbials

Why do we use adverbials?

We use adverbs to give more information about the verb.

We use adverbials of manner to say how something happens or how something is

done:

The children were playing happily.

He was driving as fast as possible.

We use adverbials of place to say where something happens:

I saw him there.

We met in London.

We use adverbials of time to say when or how often something happens:

They start work at six thirty.

They usually go to work by bus.

We use adverbials of probability to show how certain we are about something.

 Perhaps the weather will be fine.

 He is certainly coming to the party.

HOW WE MAKE ADVERBIALS

An adverbial can be an adverb:
 He spoke angrily.
They live here.
We will be back soon.

or an adverb with an intensifier:

He spoke really angrily.

They live just here.
We will go quite soon.
We will go as soon as possible.

or a phrase with a preposition:

He spoke in an angry voice.

They live in London.
We will go in a few minutes.

WHERE THEY GO IN A SENTENCE

Where do adverbials go in a sentence?

We normally put adverbials after the verb:

He spoke angrily.
They live just here.
We will go in a few minutes.

or after the object or complement:

He opened the door quietly.

She left the money on the table.
We saw our friends last night.
You are looking tired tonight.

But adverbials of frequency (how often) usually come in front of the main verb:

We usually spent our holidays with our grandparents.

I have never seen William at work.

But if we want to emphasise an adverbial we can put it at the beginning of a clause:

Last night we saw our friends.

In a few minutes we will go.
Very quietly he opened the door.

If we want to emphasise an adverb of manner we can put it in front of the main

verb:

He quietly opened the door.

She had carefully put the glass on the shelf.

ADVERBS OF MANNER
Adverbs of manner are usually formed from adjectives by adding –ly:
 bad > badly; quiet > quietly; recent > recently; sudden > suddenly

but there are sometimes changes in spelling:

easy > easily; gentle > gently

If an adjective ends in –ly we use the phrase in a …. way to express manner:

Silly > He behaved in a silly way.

Friendly > She spoke in a friendly way.

A few adverbs of manner have the same form as the adjective:

They all worked hard.

She usually arrives late.
I hate driving fast.

Note: hardly and lately have different meanings:

He could hardly walk = It was difficult for him to walk.
I haven’t seen John lately = I haven’t seen John recently.

We often use phrases with like as adverbials of manner:

She slept like a baby.

He ran like a rabbit.

Adverbs of manner and link verbs

We very often use adverbials with like after link verbs:

Her hands felt like ice.

It smells like fresh bread.

But we do not use other adverbials of manner after link verbs. We

use adjectives instead:

They looked happily happy.

That bread smells deliciously delicious.

adverbials of place
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We use adverbials of place to describe:

Location

We use prepositions to talk about where someone or something is.

Examples:
 He was standing by the table.

 You’ll find it in the cupboard.

 Sign your name here – at the bottom of the page.

Direction

We use adverbials to to talk about the direction where someone or something

is moving.

Examples:

 Walk past the bank and keep going to the end of the street.

 The car door is very small so it’s difficult to get into.

Distance

We use adverbials to show how far things are:

Examples:

 Birmingham is 250 kilometres from London.

 We were in London. Birmingham was 250 kilometres away.

adverbials of location
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Location

We use prepositions to talk about where someone or something is:

above among at behind below beneath

beside between by in in between inside

near next to on opposite outside over

round through under underneath

He was standing by the table.

She lives in a village near Glasgow.
You’ll find it in the cupboard.

We use phrases with of as prepositions:

at the back of at the top of at the bottom of at the end of

on top of at the front of in front of in the middle of

There were some flowers in the middle of the table.

Sign your name here – at the bottom of the page.
I can’t see. You’re standing in front of me.

We can use right as an intensifier with some of these prepositions:

He was standing right next to the table.

There were some flowers right in the middle of the table.
There’s a wood right behind our house.

adverbials of direction
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Direction
We also use prepositional phrases to talk about direction:

across along back back to down into

onto out of past through to towards

She ran out of the house.

Walk past the bank and keep going to the end of the street.

We also use adverbs and adverb phrases for place and direction:

abroad away anywhere downstairs downwards

everywhere here indoors inside nowhere

outdoors outside somewhere there upstairs

I would love to see Paris. I’ve never been there.

The bedroom is upstairs.
It was so cold that we stayed indoors.

We often have a preposition at the end of a clause:

This is the room we have our meals in.

The car door is very small so it’s difficult to get into.
I lifted the carpet and looked underneath.

adverbials of distance
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Distance
We use adverbials to show how far things are:

Birmingham is 250 kilometres from London.

Birmingham is 250 kilometres away from London.
It is 250 kilometres from Birmingham to London.

Sometimes we use a preposition at the end of a clause:

We were in London. Birmingham was 250 kilometres away.

Birmingham was 250 kilometres off.

adverbials of time
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Adverbials of time
We use adverbials of time to say:

• when something happened:

I saw Mary yesterday.

She was born in 1978.
I will see you later.
There was a storm during the night.

• for how long :

We waited all day.

They have lived here since 2004.
We will be on holiday from July 1st until August 3rd.

• how often (frequency):

They usually watched television in the evening.

We sometimes went to work by car.

We often use a noun phrase as a time adverbial:

yesterday last week/month/year one day/week/month last Saturday

tomorrow next week/month/year the day after tomorrow next Friday

today this week/month/year the day before yesterday the other day/week/month

We use phrases with prepositions as time adverbials:

• We use at with:

clock times: at seven o’clock - at nine thirty - at fifteen hundred hours

mealtimes: at breakfast - at lunchtime - at teatime

… and in these phrases:

at night - at the weekend - at Christmas - at Easter

• We use in with:

seasons of the year: in spring/summer/autumn/winter - in the spring

/summer/autumn/winter
years and centuries: in 2009 -in 1998 - in the twentieth century
months: in January/February/March etc.
parts of the day: in the morning - in the afternoon - in the evening.

• We use on with:

days: on Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday etc - on Christmas day - on my birthday.

dates: on the thirty first of July - on June 15th

Note: We say at night when we are talking about all of the night:

When there is no moon it is very dark at night.

He sleeps during the day and works at night.

but we say in the night when we are talking about a short time during the night:

He woke up twice in the night.

I heard a funny noise in the night.

We use the adverb ago with the past simple to say how long before the time of
speaking something happened:

I saw Jim about three weeks ago.

We arrived a few minutes ago.

We can put time phrases together:

We will meet next week at six o’clock on Monday.

I heard a funny noise at about eleven o’clock last night.
It happened last week at seven o’clock on Monday night.

how long
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We use for to say how long:

We have been waiting for twenty minutes.

They lived in Manchester for fifteen years.

We use since with the present perfect or the past perfect to say when something
started:

I have worked here since December.

They had been watching since seven o’clock in the morning.

We use from …to/until to say when something starts and finishes:

They stayed with us from Monday to Friday.

We will be on holiday from the sixteenth until the twentieth.

how often
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The commonest adverbials of frequency are:

always never normally occasionally often

rarely seldom sometimes usually

We usually put adverbials of frequency in front of the main verb:

We often spend Christmas with friends.

I have never enjoyed myself so much.

but they usually come after the verb be:

He was always tired in the evening.

We are never late for work.

We use the adverbial a lot to mean often or frequently. It comes at the end of the
clause:

We go to the cinema a lot.

but before another time adverbial:

We go to the cinema a lot at the weekend.

We use much with a negative to mean not often:

We don’t go out much. (= We don’t go out often)

We use how often or ever to ask questions about frequency. How often comes at
the beginning of the clause:

How often do you go to the cinema?

How often have you been here?

ever comes before the main verb:

Do you ever go to the cinema at the weekend?

Have you ever been there?

Longer frequency phrases, like every year or three times a day usually come at the
end of the clause:

I have an English lesson twice a week.

She goes to see her mother every day.

already, still, yet and no longer

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We use still to show that something continues up to a time in the past present or
future. It goes in front of the main verb:

The children still enjoyed playing games.

They are still living next door.
We will still be on holiday.

… or after the present simple or the past simple of be:

Her grandfather is still alive.

They were still unhappy.

We use already to show that something has happened sooner than it was expected to
happen. Like still, it comes before the main verb:

The car is OK. I’ve already fixed it.

It was early but they were already sleeping.

… or after the present simple or past simple of the verb be:

 It was early but we were already tired.
We are already late.

We use yet in a negative or interrogative clause, usually with perfective aspect

(especially in British English), to show that something has not happened by a
particular time. yet comes at the end of the sentence:

It was late, but they hadn’t arrived yet.

Have you fixed the car yet?
She won’t have sent the email yet.

adverbials of probability
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Adverbials of probability
We use adverbials of probability to show how certain we are about something. The
most frequent adverbials of probability are:

certainly - definitely - maybe - possibly

clearly - obviously - perhaps - probably

maybe and perhaps usually come at the beginning of the clause:

Perhaps the weather will be fine.

Maybe it won’t rain.

Other adverbs of possibility usually come in front of the main verb:

He is certainly coming to the party.

Will they definitely be there?
We will possibly come to England next year.

but after am, is, are, was, were:

They are definitely at home.

She was obviously very surprised.

comparative adverbs
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We can use comparative adverbs to show change or to make comparisons:

I forget things more often nowadays.

She began to speak more quickly.
They are working harder now.
We often use than with comparative adverbs

I forget things more often than I used to.

Girls usually work harder than boys.

Intensifiers:

We use these words and phrases as intensifiers with these patterns:

much - far - a lot - quite a lot - a great deal - a good deal - a good bit - a fair
bit

I forget things much more often nowadays.

Mitigators:

We use these words and phrases as mitigators:

a bit - just a bit - a little - a little bit - just a little bit - slightly

She began to speak a bit more quickly

superlative adverbs
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We can use superlative adverbs to make comparisons:

His ankles hurt badly, but his knees hurt worst.

It rains most often at the beginning of the year.

Intensifiers:

When we intensify a superlative adverb we often use the in front of the adverb, and we
use these words and phrases as intensifiers:

easily - much - far - by far