Using nouns in business, count, and non-count. You may think you know all about how to use nouns in English. However, I often hear people use count and non-count nouns incorrectly in business, as well as in everyday situations because there are some tricky words in English. The idea of count and non-count is that some things we can count and others we can't. Let's quickly review basic countable nouns. Singular nouns: A chicken, a lamp, a worker. Some example sentences with singular: There is a chicken by the house. The lamp on the table is blue. The worker climbs the tower. Plural nouns: Chickens, lamps, workers. Some example plural sentences : There are two chickens by the house. The lamps on the table are blue. The workers climbed the tower. Notice the verbs, how they change between singular and plural. Now, can you count honey, gasoline, or water? No, because these are non-count. First, let's talk about scientific classes of non-count nouns. For example, liquid gas, solid, and particle. Liquids: water, oil, gas. Gases: air, oxygen, steam. Solids: iron, gold, and copper. Particles: sand, salt, and dust. Now, here are also some maybe not so scientific liquids: ketchup, tea, soup, and blood. Some gases: smoke, air pollution, ozone, exhaust. Solids: ice, cheese, bread, and butter. Some particles: rice, sugar, corn, and flour. Can you think of other words that fit into these categories? How can we count these items that are non-count? We can use containers or quantifiers. For example, we say four pieces of bread. Notice that the count part is on pieces, not on bread, we don't say four breads. Two buckets of paint. Again two buckets, buckets, it has the s. Two pieces of cheese. A spoon of sugar. So here is one spoon of sugar, we can't say one sugar. Three gallons of gasoline. A bowl of soup singular. Again, they are one bowl of soup. A drop of blood. Five cups of tea. A bottle of ketchup. Three glasses of water. Please notice how you use the singular with these and then also the plural and where to put the s forms on the quantifiers. Now, let's talk about some groups that are made up of things that are similar. The similar things that we'll see here are countable nouns. First, in this gray box in the center, we have the group words which are non-count: baggage, luggage, jewelry, furniture, male, fruit, traffic, equipment, and stuff. Bag, backpack, and trunk are all countable nouns that are part of the group, baggage and luggage. Necklace, ring, and watch are countable, part of the group, jewelry. Table, chair, and bed are countable, part of the group, furniture. Letter, postcard, and package, countable, part of the group, mail. Apple, orange, and banana, are countable, part of the group, fruit. By the way, the word vegetable in English is countable. Fruit is non-count. Vegetable is countable. Something interesting. The words car, bus, and truck are countable. They're part of the group, traffic. Bat, baseball, and mitt are countable words, they're part of the group, equipment. Thing, product, and the item are countable words., they're part of the group, stuff. Let's look at some examples, count sentences. There are chairs around the table. Of course, there are five chairs around the table. The cars on the highway are fast. This is using the count nouns. Examples with non-count sentences : there is furniture in the room. The traffic is slow today. We use a singular verb with the non-count nouns. Notice this word, "stuff." This is not a professional word that you should use in business or academic situations. Please just be aware of that. To continue with some groups of non-count words that might be a little bit different for you, sports. Whether all of these words are non-count. Fields of study that you'd study in school are non-count and languages are non-count. Let's look at some example of sentences. Economics is complicated, even though the word economics ends with an S, the word itself is non-count, we use the singular verb is, the sunshine is strong, poker is a card game, the fog makes it difficult to see clearly. We use those singular verbs with these non-count nouns. Here are some example non-count sentences with quantifiers; Sue saw a drop of rain on her window, we don't say a rain. Alex speaks three varieties of English, not three Englishes. We watched two football games last week, not two footballs. I saw many bolts of lightning during the storm, not many lightnings. Money and measurements are also tricky in English, let's look at this. The word money is non-count. Of course we can count $4 bills or $0.07, but this refers to the number of paper bills or coins, not the total amount of money. When we speak of an amount, a price or cost, we use a singular verb. Two thousand dollars is the price of this bicycle. This $5 is for my lunch, notice this singular verb and the singular word this in front of $5. Let's look at some examples of this. How far is it to Denver from here? It is 600 miles. This is a total distance. Five pounds of potatoes is the correct amount to cook for this dinner. Five pounds is the subject, pounds is plural word, but it's considered non-count and we use the singular verb. Two gallons of milk is too heavy for me to carry on my bike, I will drive to the store later. Two gallons, they're gallons, it's two but we use this singular verb is. There are some other words that are non-count in English that may be a surprise to some of you. Let's look at them now. This is not a complete list, but these are the more common ones; advice, grammar, evidence, information, homework, music, news, proof, work, and vocabulary. These are all non-count. Let's look at some example of sentences. Your advice is good, not your advices are good. English grammar is sometimes confusing. His evidence was faulty. Current information helps us decide. This homework is easy. Soft music calms many people. That news was amazing. There is proof this new medication is effective. His work is satisfactory. The vocabulary in this article is difficult. How can we count these non-count ideas that we saw on the last slide? Just as we can count things like a bottle of ketchup or a glass of water, we can also count these ideas. Let's look at some examples. Two rainstorms, some sunshine. We're not counting just using some. A bolt of lightning, there's the singular way to say it. Vocabulary items, vocabulary words, variations of English. Three baseball games, five tennis matches, a basketball game, pieces of artwork, work projects, homework assignments, a piece of news, a news item, a piece of information, a piece of advice or just some advice. These last group of words, piece of news, news item, piece of information, piece of advice. These are the ones most often that have mistakes when I'm listening to business, people speak non native speakers. Please be aware of them, notice how you can count these and word these. You could say two pieces of news or two news items, I want to give you two pieces of information and so forth. In this lesson, we have reviewed information about non-count nouns. Some of it is quite simple and logical, but other parts may be confusing. Although this grammar seems to be basic, it is important to especially in writing and speaking situations. When non native speakers make mistakes with these more advanced non-count nouns, it may give the impression that the speaker or writer is not well-educated or just does not care about speaking properly. Don't forget to do the practice activity that will help you practice the ideas we have discussed in this lesson.
