Countable Versus Uncountable Nouns

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad!   Nouns are naming words which make up the most common category of words in the English language. Within this category there are several different types of nouns with specific roles to play.   Nouns are the most common type of word in the English language and therefore make up a large part of EFL language lessons, particularly in lower level classes. As an EFL teacher it is recommended that you have a solid understanding of the different types of nouns so you can help your students make rapid progress in this area of grammar. Common nouns are used to name a GENERAL type of person, place or thing. Common nouns can be divided into smaller classes such as countable and uncountable nouns, concrete and abstract nouns, and...  [Read more]

  Let's begin our examination of parts of speech with nouns. Nouns are our naming words. They name a person or people, such as Jack, Jill, brother, Prime Minister. We have a place or places such as kitchen, Tokyo. Things or the things around us: pen, light, camera. We have our concepts and ideas: beauty, democracy. These people, things, places and concepts fall into two basic subcategories. Those subcategories are countable and uncountable. As their name suggests, the differentiation here is whether or not we can count our nouns or if we cannot count them. We have our countable nouns: dogs, pens, are two examples. The very nature of the words means that we can count these nouns one dog or 5, 10. Then, we have our uncountable nouns. The nouns that cannot be separated: music, bread....  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad!   What are quantifiers? We use quantifiers (A Lot Of, A Few, A Little, A Bit…) when we want to give information about the number of something: how much or how many. Let's take a look at it below.   Quantifiers form a sub-category under determiners. They are adjectives or phrases that answer two possible questions: 1. How many? 2. and How much? For example: a few, a little, much, many, most, some, any, enough, etc., are quantifiers.   Quantifiers that describe quantity include a little, none, a few, etc. Some of these are used only with:   Countable nouns – These are the nouns that answer the question "How many?" For example: a few, a number of, several, etc.   Uncountable nouns – These are...  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad!   The four expressions "many", "much", "a lot of" and "lots of" are widely used but often confused. Let's take a look at their differences and when to use which expression correctly.   The word "many" is used with countable, plural nouns in questions and negative sentences. Example Sentences   "Much" is used with uncountable nouns to indicate a large quantity. It is mostly used in negative questions or sentences. Example Sentences    A lot of means a large number of amount. It can be used for countable or uncountable nouns (negative, positive and question). Example Sentences   "A lot of" and "lots of" have the same meaning and they can be used interchangably; "lots of" means a large...  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad!   We use "there is" and "there are" to say that something exists. The two phrases are often confused so below we take a look at the differences between "there is" and "there are".   We use there is and there are to say that something exists.   We use "there is" for singular and "there are" for plural.   We also use "there is" with uncountable nouns:   The contraction of "there is" is "there's". You cannot contract "there are".   The negative is formed by putting not after is or are: We almost always use contractions when speaking. The Negative contractions are:   When we want to indicate that a zero quantity of something exists we use there aren't any. We also use this structure...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Daisy C. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Grammar Pronunciation Japanese schools Japanese culture Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: One problem facing many Japanese students learning English is differentiating between countable and uncountable nouns. In the Japanese language, the same word is often used for 'much' and 'many'. In English, 'much' is used to describe countable nouns, and 'many' is used to describe uncountable nouns. A problem facing many EFL learners, especially Japanese learners, is idioms. The English language has thousands of idioms, which are used in everyday life. These are...  [Read more]

  In this TEFL/TESOL review video trainees Emma and Angelo discuss their experiences during the third week of their course in Phuket. They outline some of the course assessment components and they talk about their teaching practice sessions and how much they valued the experience. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English language teaching. This convenient, highly structured design means that you can quickly get to grips with each section before moving onto the next. Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! Classroom Management unit is a very important one because it is one of the most...  [Read more]

  Mary from the US took the 120-hour TEFL course with tutor support and videos after being recommended the course by her friends who are already teaching. In this TEFL review video, Mary discusses her experience of taking the course. Mary found the course videos to be helpful in presenting the course materials in a more visual way, which helped her to better absorb the information. She also found the tutors to be very responsive to her questions often replying within 24 hours. One of the main benefits of the course was that Mary was able to study in her own time enabling her to fit study around her job. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that...  [Read more]

Date posted:2017-07-12 | Writer: PGL Travel | Email: [email protected] Become an EFL teacher in the UK with PGL and bring our dynamic English language programme to life! PGL is the UK's market leading provider of activity holidays and study courses for young people and currently have jobs available with immediate starts for TESOL/CELTA qualified teachers. In this role you’ll be delivering our English as a foreign language product. You’ll work at one of our UK activity centres where guests enjoy a mix of classroom based EFL sessions and off-site excursions. We’re looking for enthusiastic TESOL qualified (or equivalent) EFL teachers to solely focus on delivering this programme to our inbound guests travelling to PGL UK centres from Europe, Asia and other long haul destinations....  [Read more]

  Here we look at the difference between "less" and "fewer". This set of words is often used incorrectly and we decided to take a closer look at the difference to help you avoid mistakes. The key difference is that the word "less" is used to refer to uncountable things while "fewer" is used to refer to countable things. Keeping this in mind will help you figure out which word to use in all situations. Remember the '10 items or less' line at the supermarket" Well, it's actually a mistake. If you are purchasing several items then these items are countable, which means the checkout should be called the ?10 items or fewer" line. Other examples of the difference between the two words are "I have been to fewer countries than you" (countable),"I have less money than you" (uncountable)....  [Read more]

William Noble Destinations Teaching Ideas I have been an online ESL teacher to Chinese students for over 13 years, mostly with primary students but also with secondary and adult students. I am also a father and have homeschooled my daughter over her primary years. Like many teachers, I've enjoyed teaching at this level of education as it lays the foundation in English. As it set the foundation, my teaching helped students to overcome common errors in production skills, speaking and writing. Teaching both my daughter and Chinese students at the primary level also helped me also to understand the different expectations between first language and second language students. Speaking Errors Phonetics Dark L Aspiration Consonant Clusters Suprasegmentals Intonation Psychology Writing Errors...  [Read more]

  In this video we explain the difference in using "amount" and "number". The word "amount" is used when we want to refer to uncountable commodities such as water, electricity, money etc. Whereas, "number" is used to refer to individual things that are countable such as book, cat, chair etc. In the example "a greater amount of people are going to the gym" the use of "amount" is incorrect because we can count "people". In this case "number" needs to be used. A good example of the use of "amount" is "a greater amount of rain came down in November compared to October". Here "rain" is uncountable so "amount" should be used. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into...  [Read more]

  And now we'll have a look at our articles. We can divide articles into these groupings: indefinite, using a or an, definite, using the, and oftentimes referred to as the zero article, is actually the absence of an article all together. With the indefinite article, we use it in a nonspecific way. "This is a pen," it's one of many pens. When using the definite article, we use it in a specific way. "This is the pen I'm using." We also use the indefinite article when mentioning something for the first time. "I have a boy and a girl." We use the definite article when mentioning that same thing an additional time or any additional times we mention it. So "I have a boy and a girl. The boy is eight and the girl is six." With the zero article, we don't use an article at all. We use it to...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas There are many different types of peculiarities when concerning the English language, and this essay is aimed at the difficulties in teaching those peculiarities to learners that are not fluent in the English language. It can be difficult for native English speakers to progressively learn the subtle nuances as children graduating to young adults and navigating complexities of the language as adults; deciphering whether or not these peculiarities warrant further investigation or retention based on usage and context. These oddities of the English language can be exponentially more difficult for those attempting to learn the English language as a second language, having fully grasped the complexities of their own language only to have to navigate the...  [Read more]