Revision

Pre-Intermediate 2 Unit 5
Definite&Indefinite articles
Countable and Uncountable nouns

Articles:
a, an, the
come before a noun ( a person, a place, a thing)
man
apple
house
arm
umbrella
organization
insect
elephant
horse
honest woman

An used before singular nouns that start in a vowel

sound A, E, I, O, U
 Eye
Ice cream
Onion
Umbrella
Ant
Hour (vowel sound) A handsome man (/h/ sound)
Muffin
Book
Laptop
Kleenex
Cookie
Shirt

1-Countable and uncountable

nouns

1-Countable nouns:
Nouns that have both a singular and plural form and can be counted
(we use a/an/ some& a lot of (+)/ few/ a few/ many (- ?) )
1-Rule: We change singular countable nouns to plural by putting -S
A dog
A table
A vase
BUT
2-If the singular countable noun ends with X, S, SS, CH, SH, O we change
them to plural by putting -es at the end of the word
Box
Bus
Glass
Church
Brush
Piano
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3-If the singular countable word ends with a vowel +-y, we put -s after -y
Toy
Key
Day
Guy
But if it ends with consonant+-y, we delete -y and put -ies
Story
University
Baby
Family
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4-If the singular countable word ends with -f(e) , we put -ves
Leaf
Loaf
Wife
Life

5- An irregular singular countable noun changes altogether

Man
Person
Woman
Mouse
Tooth
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2- Uncountable nouns:
Nouns that have no plural form and cannot be counted.
(we use some& a lot (+) little/ a little/ much (- ?) of with uncountable
nouns)
Which of the following words is countable/uncountable?
Cereal A cereal bag
Tin Tin can
Parking Parking lot/spot/space
Traffic Traffic jam/sign/light
Yoghurt Yoghurt pots/cup
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How do we change words to plural?

1-If the words are countable, we put -s/ some/a lot of/few/ a few/ many:
-s
Some
A lot of (used for big countable quantities)
Few/a few .(used with small countable quantities)
Many (questions/ negative) Do you have many ?
I don’t have many
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2- If the words are uncountable, we put some/ a lot of/ little/ a little/ much:
Some
A lot of (used for big uncountable quantities)
Little/ a little (used for small uncountable quantities)
Much (questions/negative) Do you have much ?
I don’t have much
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Put any/many /much/ few/ little in the blanks:

1. I don’t have furniture to give away
2. Do you need spoons?
3. We don’t need courage to say the truth.
4. The students have laptops to do their projects.
5. The cake needed more sugar.
To change the following words from uncountable to countable, think
mostly about the containers we put them into:
Information
Knowledge
Money
Culture
Water
Flour
Meat
Traffic
Cereal
Education
Shoes
Parking
Tin
Yoghurt
compost
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3-plural-looking words
Some nouns that end in -s look like they are plural, but they really are
singular. This is particularly true of branches of knowledge, certain foods
or dishes, certain diseases, and nouns expressing measurement.

The following words that end in S:

We use the singular verb is with them

Mathematics
Physics
Politics 
Social studies
Measles
Mumps
rickets
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We use plural verb are with the following words that end in S:
Why?
They have two parts
To make singular, we put A Pair of

Scissors of scissors

Pants of pants

Trousers of trousers

Glasses-spectacles …
of glasses/spectacles/shades/

Pliers … of pliers

Tongs of tongs
 Tweezers of tweezers

Quantifiers:
some/any/ a lot of/ a few/ many/ much
They are used with countable and uncountable nouns
1) Some is used with countable and uncountable nouns in positive form.

2) Any/many/much are used with negative and question form.

Put the following quantifiers in the blanks: many/ any/ much/some:
I need information.
I don’t have information. we only know a little.
I don’t have oranges left. Please go buy some.
Do you need eggs in the recipe?
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Some / a lot/ a few/ many are used with positive sentences

some/a lot/ any/ much are used with negative sentences:
1-He needs of jackets for winter.
2-They want bottles.
3-James only needs plates. They already have some.
4-I don’t play sports.

There aren’t bottles left in the box.

There isn’t food left in the fridge. We need some more.
We have eggs in the fridge. Go get them.
There is furniture in the shop.

Use is/are in the following:

1-The boys playing in the garden.
2-Information easily exchanged online.
4-Pieces of information collected about the journalist’s murder.
5-space travel thought to be impossible
6-space ships travelling to the moon

Definite article THE

Use the with sth/sb mentioned before.
I went to a park and saw girl was pretty and nice. We walked into
park and met strange boy. boy was interested in girl
and took her to amusement park. At Amusement park,
boy and girl saw woman crying her heart out. boy
asked woman what was wrong. woman looked at
boy and asked girl for money.
2-Used the when it is part of the name of a country of
many islands/ states OR countries that end with -s
USA.
UK.
Netherlands
Maldives
Philippines
Seychelles
United Arab Emirates

3-Use the with some rivers:

Amazon
Danube
Euphrates
Jordan
Nile
4-Use the with mountain Ranges:
Alps
Himalayas

5-Use the with superlative form of adjectives:

That is thinnest dog in the kennel.
You have curliest hair I have ever seen.
She was nicest person there.
Those are simplest instructions.
Mary is most gullible person I know.
That brand is least powerful for getting out stains.
Pavarotti was most famous singer of the 20th century.
I was least upset of the team after the loss.

6- Use the with the names of hotels & restaurants, unless

these are named after a person.
Hilton
Sheraton
Four Seasons
Semiramis Hotel
Mc Donalds

7- Use the with the names of famous buildings, works of

art, museums, or monuments.
Eiffel Tower
Pyramids
Sphinx
White House
Parliament
Mona Lisa

We use No ARTICLE
1-With certain countries with delete (the) before them:
 Egypt
Cairo
Canada
Hungary
Iceland
Ireland
Jamaica
Japan
Spain
Libya
Myanmar
New Zealand
Trinidad and Tobago

2-When we talk about things in general, we delete (the)

People are struggling to survive on minimum payment.
people I met yesterday were super nice!
Mobile phones are needed worldwide.
mobile phones Jennifer bought for her kids are expensive.
Money is very important.
I asked him to return money I lent him a year ago.
Knowledge is a must.
knowledge of best teaching methods is much needed in
Egypt.

3-With certain expressions we delete (the)

I don’t work at night/home/ school
I hate dogs
I love pasta