How to Know if a Noun is Countable or Uncountable

Grammar, Vocabulary No Responses »
Jul 292010

The next question, “How do I know if a noun is countable or uncountable”, is similarly not easy to answer!

We’re speaking about English, remember?

It’s time to take out our dictionaries – hard-bound, soft-bound, or electronic. We will be using an online version, from Longman’s Dictionary of American English.

We’ll begin with an easy noun:  the noun, advice. You can click on the hyperlink or you can see below:

This noun has one definition, and right away the dictionary listing says [uncountable].

That was easy.  So now we know that this noun has NO plural form and that the verb we use should be in a singular form. We also know to NOT use an article (a and an) before this noun.

So how do we count this noun, then? How do we quantify it?  Look at the example “a piece/word of advice“.  This would be the standard way of counting items of advice.

Just yesterday a friend offered me some advice that I did not solicit. I said to her, “Did I ask you for advice?” She said “No” and that part of the conversation ended, and the topic was changed.  Thus, grammatically, you see there was no article (a or an) used before the noun, which is correct for an uncountable noun.

Be sure, with looking up any word, in particular a noncountable noun, to see if the dictionary gives you any suggestions for how to quantify this noun.

We’ll stop here for today, at this easy place.

But there are many nouns that have both a countable and an uncountable form, such as the noun “change”! What about those?  In our next blog post, we will answer the question, “How (Do We Know) If a Noun Has a Countable and an Uncountable Form?”

Posted by ESL Help! Desk at 2:39 pm

How to Know the Plural Form of a Noun (If It Has One)

Grammar, Vocabulary, Writing No Responses »
Jul 252010

You wanted an easy answer, didn’t you!  Sorry, I can’t give it to you!  You’re learning English!

Let’s say you are learning a new word.  A new noun.  The reasonable thing to assume that it is a regular noun, and that it is a countable noun and has a plural form.  As a rule, the plural form of a noun is constructed by adding an ~s or ~es to the singular form.

In most cases, that would work. But that’s where you may get into Grammar Trouble-ville.

So let’s do some research.  Let’s  look up a new word in a dictionary.

I looked up the word “man“  in my beloved little Webster’s Dictionary that I’ve had since I was a child.  It indicated man. n.; pl. MEN .  I next turned to my Longman Dictionary of American English that I’ve just taken off of the shelf for this purpose.  Right after the main word “man” was a note indicating its part of speech:  “n“  (for noun) and then “men”. So we’re good in both dictionaries, right from the beginning.  We learn the plural form for the noun man is men.

Now I tried this on an online Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English .  Go ahead; click on “man 1 noun”.

Right here it says “man plural men“. That’s it! This is a countable noun that has an irregular plural form.

I next tried the common (singular) noun “person“.  My little Webster’s Dictionary didn’t say anything about its plural form (“people”).  Might this mean that the plural of person is persons?  My Longman Dictionary of American English (very helpful for learners of English) had, after all the definitions, at the very end of the entry, a “USAGE” note:  “The usual plural of person is people.”  You see, there is a plural form of person: persons, but its meaning is not our standard one:  We would not say “I saw many persons in the park.”  The form persons tends to be legalistic and mathematical.

I tried Longman’s  online dictionary: 
This tells us “person [countable].  Now it gives us the first “1” common definition:  MALE PERSON [countable}. So now we know we can say “There were many people looking for work.”

Let’s scroll down a little further, to definition #4:


“4 plural persons” And we see this has a different meaning and use, as I wrote above, a more formal use.

So let’s practice and look up the word “woman“:  We find woman n women. That tells us the singular is woman, the word is a noun, and the plural is women.

As a rule, the plural form of a noun is constructed by adding an ~s or ~es to the singular form.

How about working this backwards !

Let’s look up “women“. In a hard copy dictionary, we see nothing there!  Dictionaries will not list the plural form of a word in its listings. So if this occurs to you, then you will have to figure out what its singular form is.  Either put on your thinking cap, or consult a grammar book.

Or look online: and there it is!

Now suppose you look up the word “change” – referring to the coins such as quarters, dimes, nickles and pennies.  The next question here is – how do you even know IF a word has a plural form? We have many words in English that do not have a plural form! Nouns such as these are referred to in a number of ways: non-count nouns, non-countable nouns, uncountable nouns.  Whatever you call then, you will need to know if the noun even has a plural form.

Stay tuned for our next blog post: How to Know if a Noun is Countable or Noncountable!

Posted by ESL Help! Desk at 10:00 pm Tagged with:

Baseball in America

American Culture, Uncategorized, Vocabulary No Responses »
Jul 112010

Many of my ESL students have come from the Dominican Republic. They understand baseball! Baseball and the Dominican Republic go hand in hand! Baseball is also very popular in Japan so my Japanese students also understand and love baseball.

Many other international students, however, have no idea what’s going on in the game of baseball, which is so popular in the United States. Baseball is not popular in Europe, Russia, or the Middle East.  That sounds odd to an American, especially after many Americans complain about how slow baseball is! How could the game of baseball be so confusing when it goes so slowly? I guess when you grow up with a sport, like I did, its seem so easy!

So here’s my attempt to explain baseball, to the person who has no idea what’s going on. In fact,  baseball is so complicated that it will take more than one post.  So I’ll begin:

First, baseball is a team sport. There are two teams.   The teams are the “home” team and the “away” team. The team that is the “away” team bats first.

The game is organized into “innings“. The basic game consists of nine complete innings. If the game is tied after nine innings, the game goes into “extra innings” until one team wins.  The longest game in baseball occurred in 1920; it was 25 innings long!

Each inning lasts until there are three “outs” on the part of the team that is “at bat“.  There are many ways to score an “out”.

Let’s talk about the baseball field.  There are four bases:  home plate, first base, second base, and third base. Because the bases are arranged in the shape of a diamond, we use the term “baseball diamond” to refer to these four bases.

Also located in the infield is the pitcher’s mound.

Finally, the field is divided into “infield” and “outfield“.  The “infielders” are the following players: The pitcher, the catcher, the first baseman, the second baseman, the shortstop, and the third baseman. The “outfielders” are the right fielder, the center fielder, and the left fielder. That adds up to nine players on the defensive team who may be on the field at any one time.

The equipment used in the game is the following: the bat, the fielders’ gloves, the bases. There are also batting helmets , knee and ankle protectors, and the catcher’s and umpire’s protective equipment such as the face mask and chest protector, because the ball is traveling so very quickly and could do some serious damage.  You might include sunglasses, batting gloves, and suntan lotion in this category, as the sun is a big factor in this game when played in the daytime.

Do you have that so far?

In part 2, we will discuss the rules of baseball.

As usual, we would love to hear your feedback and comments.
Posted by ESL Help! Desk at 8:42 am

For the Stressed out Person

Writing No Responses »
Feb 112010

Click on the “play” button.

Wait a minute for the video to upload. Then relax.  Here we are, sitting by the bank of the Charles River, upriver from Boston.

Can you relax?

What do you observe? What is happening?

Write your thoughts below. In most cases, you will be using the present continuous (also known as present progressive) verb tense.

Posted by ESL Help! Desk at 9:50 pm Tagged with:

24/7 ("twenty four-seven")

Vocabulary, Writing No Responses »
Jan 072010

Hello!

Here is an excellent question received from a viewer.  Because we did not have your email address, we could not respond to you personally via email. However, there’s a bright side to that because we will answer your question on the blog for all to see!

The question was:  “Shouldn’t it me 24:7 and not 24/7?” The question is about how we write this expression, “twenty-four (24) seven (7)”.

The expression 24/7 is the way we write “twenty-four seven”, meaning 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. The forward slash / is commonly used to indicate “per”. Thus, we abbreviate “twenty-four (24) hours per day, seven (7) days per week” as “24/7″.

To us, 24:7 is a ratio or a division problem: 24 divided by 7.

I hope this helps!

Thanks for your question.

The ESL Help Desk!

Posted by ESL Help! Desk at 1:41 pm

A Reader Request for a Lesson on Phrasal Verbs

Grammar No Responses »
Oct 012009

Here’s a letter that we recently received:

Let me say that this poadcast is very important for me since I had some difficulty to understand the use of the present perfect before.  I’m so glad!

first of all I’d like to thank all members working to help people improve their lunguage skills.  It’s so kind from your part!

What I’d like to find in this site is the use of phrasal verbs that often make me confused to well understand the real meaning of the verb.

Please if you have poadcasts about this I would like to know where I can find them.

Thanks

We don’t have the name or email address of the person who wrote to us, but we thank you for your request, and your support, and will do a lesson on phrasal verbs soon!

If anybody has any phrasal verbs in particular that confuse you, send them our way as part of a comment to this blog post.

Thank you!

*******

Posted by ESL Help! Desk at 9:26 am

How to Begin a Letter

Uncategorized, Writing No Responses »
Sep 222009

It’s really nice to know that people want to know how to begin a letter. First, it’s nice to know that in this world of telephones, there is a real interest in writing!  It’s also great to know that our readers want to be polite, socially acceptable, and grammatically correct!

Here’s a request I received from a reader recently:

Please tell me about some phrase begging of the letter Like ( I hope find you in the best of health or I hope find well ect…

My question back is – to whom would you be writing? To a friend?  To a business associate?  To a relative or parent?  This will help me come up with some beginnings based on the social relationship.  There are more formal and less formal ways to ask this question.

Let’s look at the two openings you suggested:

“I hope this letter finds you well” is a very polite opening, and one that indicates good manners.  It also would be sent to somebody whom you already know.  Your variant would be “I hope this letter finds you in the best of health.“  Of course, as I indicated, this is a polite opening, and written to somebody whom you already know, so you want to use it appropriately.  You also want to use this with someone who will appreciate the fine language.

If you want to write a letter to somebody you do not know, let me know and we can broaden the conversation and come up with some other appropriate openings.

Thank you for your question; it is a very good one!

*******

Posted by ESL Help! Desk at 11:06 am Tagged with:

American Labor Day

American Culture No Responses »
Sep 032009

Say you want to know when the lifeguards will leave the beaches and swimming pools for the end of the summer. Say you want to know when the swimming pools will officially close for the summer.  Say you want to know when, if you want to swim in the ocean, you will have to “swim at your own risk”.  Say you want to know when the public schools will open up again and signal the official end of summer.  You are talking about Labor Day!

Labor Day takes place on the first Monday in September.  That creates something that Americans love: A three-day holiday!  As such, it is a big travel weekend, with many people trying to get their last “big bang” out of summer.

Many retail stores have big sales, which leads people to ask, “How is this a celebration of labor, of workers, if everybody has to go to work?” But you can be sure the most non-retail businesses, all banks and all governmental offices are closed, which includes no mail delivery and no trash pick-ups.

Labor Day has been an American holiday since 1882.  We don’t know exactly when students returned to school before that date, but you can be sure that Labor Day is now a major part of American life.

You can read more about Labor Day in the United States Department of Labor‘s own website!

Posted by ESL Help! Desk at 10:52 am

"It's Correct but I Can't Explain It"

Grammar No Responses »
Aug 202009

What happens when your grammar and sentence structure is correct, but you cannot explain WHY something is correct?  First, I say Be glad that it is correct! But of course you are curious and a thinking person and you want to know more and you still want to know why! You want to understand the language.

Here is a question received that shows just such a case:

Grammar can be very confusing.  I have a question. I’m very familiar with causative verbs but what about this:

“I saw my mother park the car.” “Saw” is not a causative verb. “Mother” is the D.O. What is “park?” I’m using an infinitive without “to” but I can’t explain it.

Please help.

Gerry Reissman
***

Here is our first response of what turned out to be a lively dialogue:

Gerry,

In the sentence you provided us, the direct object (D.O.) is a noun phrase “my mother park the car”. The sentence would be diagrammed as: Subject: “I”. Verb: “saw”. DO: “my mother park(ed) the car”.

Analyzing the noun phrase, “my mother” is the subject of the noun phrase, “parked” is the verb, and “the car” is the direct object of the noun phrase.

Please explain your thinking that you are questioning the use of the infinitive “to” in this sentence, so I can see where that idea is coming from.

Also, there are no causative verbs in this sentence.

The only two legitimate grammatical possibilities are “I saw my mother park the car” and “I saw my mother parking the car”. Do you see the differences (grammatical and otherwise) between these two sentences?

Brian, are you thinking “Why doesn’t this sentence follow the same structure as…..(for example)…”I want my mother to park the car”?

ESL Help! Desk

—–

Gerry responded:

Thank you very much for your help but maybe I was not thorough with my question.

I recognize the noun clause with “mother” as the subject and “park” as the verb (not “parked”).

So if  “park” is the verb of the noun clause, where is the subject-verb agreement?

Why not “I saw my mother parks the car?” We wouldn’t say that.

That’s why I thought “park” was the infinitive form without “to.”

Can you explain the lack of subject-verb agreement?

Thank you.
***

We responded:

Do you know anything about diagramming sentences? Get a paper and pencil!

The key here is the rule of VERBS OF PERCEPTION, such as “see”, “hear”, “smell”, etc.

The sentence that you see derives from an underlying sentence that would be diagrammed as: Subject: “I” Verb: “saw” Direct Object: “my mother parked the car” and that noun phrase derives from Subject: “my mother” Verb: “parked” Direct Object: “the car”. In the underlying sentence, there is no subject-verb agreement because the verb is simple past tense. But in the higher layer, the one we use for communication, the RULE is that we use the BASE FORM of the verb after the VERB OF PERCEPTION, “(to) see” or in this case, the past tense “saw” when the verb of the noun phrase is either simple past or simple present tense.

There is one other option: Let’s say noun phrase of the underlying sentence uses the past continuous tense: “My mother was parking the car”. In such cases, we do away with the helping verb “was” and the end sentence is “I saw my mother parking the car.”

The rule applies even for the present tense. “I see you looking at me!“  results when the underlying sentence is “You are looking at me”. Or this one: “I see her park every day” is what we express when the underlying sentence is “She parks every day”.

Why is this so?

I don’t know where this transformation occurred, whether it is the influence of another language early in the development of English, whether it is the miracle of the human brain, and the natural evolution of human language. But this is how English is, at this point in time.

There is a legitimate English sentence that maintains the subject-verb agreement: “I saw (that) your other parks her car” but that has a different meaning and that different meaning would probably be reflected verbally in a different inflection. Perhaps it would be said in a tone of surprise. “Brian, I saw (that) your mother parks the car in the street. Why doesn’t she just park the car in the driveway?” Or “Brian, I saw (that) your mother parks her own car. Why doesn’t she use the valet service?”

The above sentence and sentence structure is a statement of general truth, not a referral to a particular instance, as in your original sentence, “I saw my mother park the car (this morning when she got home from shopping)”, which can be attributed to a particular time and place.

Are we being thorough enough?

the ESL HELP! Desk

We followed up with this comment:

Gerry,

By the way, in both “I saw your mother parks the car in the street. Why doesn’t she just park the car in the driveway?” and “I saw your mother parks her car. Why doesn’t she use the valet service?” and sentences of that nature, referring to general situation not specific instance, the “that” can be omitted. It exists in the lower transformation. Hence, it is possible to say “I saw that your mother parks the car in the street. Why doesn’t she just park in the driveway?” or “I saw that your mother parks her car. Why doesn’t she use the valet service?”

In your original sentence, “I saw my mother park the car (when she got home from shopping)”, in which we are referring to a particular instance (and also “I saw my mother parking the car”) the “that” does NOT exist in the lower transformation. Thus, one CANNOT say “I saw that my mother park the car when she got home from shopping.”

Just to make sure you have the fuller picture.

And we were happy to receive this concluding remark:

***

Yes, you are being extremely thorough and I can’t thank you enough for your time. Thank you very much!

******

Posted by ESL Help! Desk at 11:33 pm

Is English Knowledge or Is It a Tool?

Uncategorized 2 Responses »
Jul 152009

Here’s an interesting question that one of our readers posed. The question elicits thought.  We’d be interested in your comments and thoughts.

in china the english teacher always teach englisn grammar , instead of english story.so students all bore of english lesson. but i think englisn is not a knowledge , it is a tool ,we can ues it to make our life, to do our business,to trip globe. is this right? please send your opinion to me by email. my email adress is XXX@XXX.com  thank you.

We responded this way:

Hello!

Thanks for writing to us!

I have enjoyed reading your comment. Is English “knowledge”?  Knowing a language or acquiring the ability to communicate in a given language  is definitely a valuable skill and asset.   It’s an intangible asset, something that others cannot take away from you.  Sure, people who are away from their native countries for a long time lose the ability to speak and think quickly in their first language, and they aren’t able to keep up with the growing body of vocabulary. But once you have a language, it’s yours to keep.  At the same time, what is the purpose of this knowledge?  It’s purpose is to enable communication. To this extent, it is a tool, and an important one for human relationships.

Many “language” teachers take language apart and just focus on the rules or on the structure of language, i.e. on grammar. They never put the pieces back together again and create a language. You want your teacher to focus on language as a means of communication.  You want to be able to read and understand books and stories, to listen and talk and more.  Knowing the rules of grammar and don’t know how to communicate, it is not of any practical use. You’re right; if you are not reading stories and communicating with others, it’s boring. It’s like having the pieces of a car in your garage all taken apart. The car won’t get you anywhere.

And as a means of communication, it is valid in so many situations, as you indicated, for pleasure, for business, to be able to read great literature or the newspapers of other cultures. Sometimes a husband and a wife have a
different first language and so they need to be able to learn each other’s language, too.

I hope that you’ll find lots of ways to make English enjoyable, just as Chinese is a language that is both useful to you and allows for pleasure, entertainment, and the acquisition of knowledge.

Thanks for your interesting questions. We’re sorry you’re bored by your teacher’s style of teaching; hopefully you can enjoy all the benefits of knowing English -  to enjoy reading interesting English books and articles, to understand the lyrics to music, to do business in English, and even enjoy the thrill of traveling around the globe and interacting with English speakers in English (just like you’re communicating with us through this website)!

All the best,

The ESL Help! Desk

Posted by ESL Help! Desk at 9:37 pm Tagged with:
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