Touchstone 2nd Edition • Language summary • Level 1

Unit 2 • Lesson B: What's in your bag?

Vocabulary
Personal items
(computer) bag (n)
cell phone (n)
credit card (n)
glasses (n)
headphones (n)
keys (n)
laptop (n)
sunglasses (n)
umbrella (n)
wallet (n)
watch (n)
water bottle (n)

Things for class

book (n)
English book (n)
eraser (n)
highlighter (n)
notebook (n)
online dictionary (n)
pen (n)
pencil (n)
scissors (n)

Food
orange (n)
sandwich (n)
snack (n)

© Cambridge University Press 2014 Unit 2, Lesson B, Page 1

Touchstone 2nd Edition • Language summary • Level 1

People
child (children) (n)
man (men) (n)
woman (women) (n)

Other words
head (n)
jeans (n)
it (pron)
this (pron)
these (pron)

Grammar
This and these
You can use This + is to make a statement about a singular noun:

This is a cell phone.

You can use These + are to make a statement about a plural noun:

These are headphones.

Yes-No questions with this and these

You can use Is + this to ask a question about a singular noun:

Is this your cell phone?

You can use Are + these to ask a question about a plural noun:

Are these your headphones?

© Cambridge University Press 2014 Unit 2, Lesson B, Page 2

Touchstone 2nd Edition • Language summary • Level 1
Affirmative short answers

Use Yes + pronoun + full form of be:

A Is this your cell phone?

B Yes, it is.

A Are these your headphones?

B Yes, they are.

Negative short answers

Use No + pronoun + contraction of be + not:

A Is this your cell phone?

B No, it's not.

A Are these your headphones?

B No, they're not.

Information questions with this or these

To ask a question about a singular noun, you can use:

What's this?

Use It's to answer:

It's a cell phone.

Remember, 's is the contraction of is.

To ask a question about a plural noun, you can use:

What are these?

Use They're to answer:

They're headphones.

Remember, 're is the contraction of are.

© Cambridge University Press 2014 Unit 2, Lesson B, Page 3

Touchstone 2nd Edition • Language summary • Level 1

Noun plurals
Nouns are things or people. A noun can be singular or plural. A singular noun is one thing or
person: bag (= 1 bag). A plural noun is two or more things or people: bags (= 2+ bags).

Regular plurals

You can add -s to a singular noun to make it plural:

a bag bags a key keys

For these singular endings use -es to make plural nouns:

(-ss) a class classes (-sh) a brush brushes

(-ch) a watch watches (-x) a box boxes

For singular nouns ending in consonant + y change y to ies to make plural nouns:

a dictionary dictionaries

Remember, a consonant is any letter that is not a, e, i, o, or u.

Irregular plurals

Some nouns are irregular and have different plurals:

a man men

a woman women

a child children

Nouns that are only plural

Some nouns are only plural and do not change:

glasses

sunglasses

scissors

© Cambridge University Press 2014 Unit 2, Lesson B, Page 4

Touchstone 2nd Edition • Language summary • Level 1
jeans

© Cambridge University Press 2014 Unit 2, Lesson B, Page 5