Let's review countable and uncountable nouns.
COUNTABLE: Things you can count: table, books, people, etc...
UNCOUNTABLE: Things that you cannot count: air, water, coffee....
However, there are certain words that seem to be countable, especially because they are countable in Portuguese. But, surprisingly, they are not. Here is the list:
INFORMATION
EQUIPMENT
LUGGAGE
ADVICE
IDENTIFICATION
EVIDENCE
...
Well, I think that these are the most incorrectly used words.
Therefore, you cannot use those words in plural. Informations, equipments, advices... WRONG, WRONG, WRONG! That's why I call these words "crazy", because in Portuguese, they are perfectly countable! In English, they cannot be used in plural.
So, let's see the quantifiers now.
| COUNTABLE | UNCOUNTABLE |
| MANY/FEW | MUCH/LITTLE |
| A NUMBER OF | AMOUNT OF |
| FEWER (THAN) | LESS (THAN) |
| One, two, three.... | A piece of, two pieces of, three pieces of... |
So, you cannot say: "Let me give you 2 advices", but you can say "Let me give you two pieces of advice". I know, it does sound weird, but if you learn how to use, you get used to it, this new structure of "crazy" uncountable nouns.
I found this video on youtube about "Eminem's 10 pieces of advice for kids" on David Letterman's show:
There's also this video talking about the best piece of fitness equipment:
So... Keep practicing!
Hi Deia,
ResponderExcluirI was here checking your blog out and remembered something I use to explain this topic in order to TRY to simplify it for the students...lol..
Whenever we discuss about it, I tell the students a COUNTABLE NOUN has 2 forms(SINGULAR AND PLURAL. On the other hand, a NONCOUNTABLE/UNCOUNTABLE NOUN does not have the plural form, as we can see in these very few examples below:
SINGULAR/PLURAL
wing/wings (countable)
laboratory/laboratories (countable)
evidence/X (non/uncount)
water/X (non/uncount)
I guess that's all!
Best wishes!
Bern
That's a great piece of advice, or pieces of advice!
ResponderExcluirthanks a lot!!!