UNIT 71. Countable nouns with a/an and some ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN USE FOR INTERMEDIATE

ENGLISH GRAMMAR IN USE FOR INTERMEDIATE

UNIT 71. Countable nouns with a/an and some

A	Countable nouns can be singular or plural: a dog a child the evening this party an umbrella dogs some children the evenings these parties two umbrellas Before singular countable nouns you can use a/an: √ Bye! Have a nice evening. √ Do you need an umbrella ? You cannot use singular countable nouns alone (without a/the/ my etc.): √ She never wears a hat. (not She never wears hat) √ Be careful of the dog. (not Be careful of dog) √ What a beautiful day! √ I've got a headache.
B	We use a/an ... to say what kind of thing something is, or what kind of person somebody is: √ That’s a nice table. In the plural we use the noun alone (not some .. .): √ Those are nice chairs. (not some nice chairs) Compare singular and plural: A dog is an animal. I'm an optimist. Tom's father is a doctor. Are you a good driver? Jane is a really nice person. What a lovely dress! Dogs are animals. We're optimists. Most of my friends are students. Are they good students? Jane’s parents are really nice people. What awful shoes We say that somebody has a long nose /a nice face /blue eyes /small hands etc. : Jack has a long nose. (not the long nose) Jack has blue eyes. (not the blue eyes) Remember to use a/an when you say what somebody's job is: √ Sandra is a nurse. (not Sandra is nurse) √ Would you like to be an English teacher?
C	You can use some with plural countable nouns. We use some in two ways. (1) Some = a number of /a few of /a pair of: √ I've seen some good movies recently. (not I've seen good movies) √ Some friends of mine are coming to stay at the weekend. √ I need some new sunglasses. (= a new pair of sunglasses) Do not use some when you are talking about things in general (see Unit 75): √ I love bananas. (not some bananas) √ My aunt is a writer. She writes books. (not some books) (2) Some = some but not all: √ Some children learn very quickly. (but not all children) Tomorrow there will be rain in some places, but most of the country will be dry. √

EXERCISES

71.1	What are these things? Use a dictionary if necessary. 1 an ant? _____It’s an insect. ____________ 2 ants and bees? ________ They’re insects.__________ 3 a cauliflower? ________________________________ 4 chess? ________________________________ 5 a pigeon, an eagle and a crow? ________________________________ 6 a skyscraper? ________________________________ 7 Earth, Mars, Venus and Jupiter? ________________________________ 8 a tulip? ________________________________ 9 the Nile, the Rhine and the Mekong? ________________________________ 10 a violin, a trumpet and a flute? ________________________________ Who were these people? 11 Beethoven? _____ He was a composer. _________ 12 Shakespeare ________________________________ 13 Albert Einstein? ________________________________ 14 Washington, Lincoln and Kennedy? ________________________________ 15 Marilyn Monroe? ________________________________ 16 Michael Jackson and John Lennon? ________________________________ 17 Van Gogh, Renoir and Picasso? ________________________________
71.2	Read about what these people do, and say what their jobs are. Choose from: chef interpreter journalist nurse plumber surgeon tour guide waiter 1 Sarah looks after patients in hospital. ____ She’s a nurse. ________ 2 Gary works in a restaurant He brings the food to the tables. He ___________________________ 3 Jane writes articles for a newspaper. ___________________________ 4 Kevin works in a hospital. He operates on people. ___________________________ 5 Jonathan cooks in a restaurant. ___________________________ 6 Dave installs and repairs water pipes. ___________________________ 7 Martina takes visitors round her city and tells them about it. She ___________________________ 8 Lisa translates what people are saying from one language into another so that they can understand each other ___________________________
71.3	Put in a/an or some where necessary. If no word is necessary, leave the space empty. 1 I've seen ______some_____ good films recently. 2 What's wrong with you? Have you got ___ a___ headache? 3 I know a lot of people. Most of them are ___ - ____ students. 4 When I was ________child, I used to be very shy. 5 Would you like to be ________actor? 6 Quest1ons, questions, . quest1ons!  You’re always ask1ng ________questions! 7 What ________beautiful garden! 8 ________birds, for example the penguin, cannot fly. 9 Do you like staying in ________hotels? 10 I've been walking for three hours. I've got ________sore feet. 11 I don’t feel very well this morning. I’ve got ________sore throat. 12 Maria speaks________English, but not very much. 13 Ifs a shame we don't have ________camera. I'd like to take ________picture of that house. 14 Those are ________nice shoes. Where did you get them? 15 I'm going shopping. I want to buy ________new shoes. 16 You need ________visa to visit ________countries, but not all of them. 17 Jane is ________teacher. Her parents were ________teachers too. 18 I don't believe him. He's ________liar. He's always telling ________lies.

ANSWER KEY