Eng. VAL: Lesson 3

1. Introductions

(At a party)
Peter: Hello.
Jane: Hi!
Peter: My name is Peter. What's your name?
Jane: My name is Jane. Nice to meet you.
Peter: It's a pleasure. This is a great party!
Jane: Yes, it is. Where are you from?
Peter: I'm from Amsterdam.
Jane: Amsterdam? Really, are you German?
Peter: NO, I'm not German. I'm Dutch.
Jane: Oh, you're Dutch. Sorry about that.
Peter: That's OK. Where are you from?
Jane: I'm from London, but I'm not British.
Peter: No, what are you?
Jane: Well, my parents were Spanish, so I'm Spanish, too.
Peter: That's very interesting. Spain is a beautiful country.
Jane: Thank you. It IS a wonderful place.

2. Nationalities
a) Match the nationality to the country.

1. I'm from China. I'm _________________________
2. You're from Japan? So, you're ____________________
3. He's from _________________. He's Hungarian.
4. She's from Sweden. She's ____________________
5. We're from ___________________. We're Turkish.
6. They're from Finland. They're ___________________.
7. This chocolate is from Belgium. It's _____________________ chocolate.
8. My wife is from ____________________. She's Polish.
9. I've lived in England for 10 years but I'm originally from Rome. I'm _____________________
10. We've travelled from Oslo. We're __________________________
11. They don't speak French. They're from Spain. It's a group of ________________ tourists.
12. Football is very popular in Germany. ______________ football is very popular.
13. The flight from the USA took 11 hours. The ________________ tourists are exhausted.
14. A volcano erupted in Iceland. An ___________________ volcano erupted.
15. There are many Irish bars in Montpellier. A lot of people from ________________ go there.

a. Hungary     b. Spanish     c. Belgian     d. Swedish     e. American     f. Turkey
g. Italian        h. Ireland       i. Chinese     j. Finnish       k. Icelandic      l. Poland
m. German    n. Japanese    o. Norwegian.

3. Countable and uncountable nouns

a. Countable Nouns

Countable nouns are easy to recognize. They are things that we can count. For example: "pen". We can count pens. We can have one, two, three or more pens. Here are some more countable nouns:

dog, cat, animal, man, person
bottle, box, litre
coin, note, dollar
cup, plate, fork
table, chair, suitcase, bag

Countable nouns can be singular or plural:

My dog is playing.
My dogs are hungry.

We can use the indefinite article a/an with countable nouns:

A dog is an animal.

When a countable noun is singular, we must use a word like a/the/my/this with it:

I want an orange. (not I want orange.)
Where is my bottle? (not Where is bottle?)

When a countable noun is plural, we can use it alone:

I like oranges.
Bottles can break.

We can use some and any with countable nouns:

I've got some dollars.
Have you got any pens?

We can use a few and many with countable nouns:

I've got a few dollars.
I haven't got many pens.

"People" is countable. "People" is the plural of "person". We can count people:

There is one person here.
There are three people here.

b. Uncountable Nouns

Uncountable nouns are substances, concepts etc that we cannot divide into separate elements. We cannot "count" them. For example, we cannot count "milk". We can count "bottles of milk" or "litres of milk", but we cannot count "milk" itself. Here are some more uncountable nouns:

music, art, love, happiness
advice, information, news
furniture, luggage
rice, sugar, butter, water
electricity, gas, power
money, currency

We usually treat uncountable nouns as singular. We use a singular verb. For example:

This news is very important.
Your luggage looks heavy.

We do not usually use the indefinite article a/an with uncountable nouns. We cannot say "an information" or "a music". But we can say a something of:

a piece of news
a bottle of water
a grain of rice

We can use some and any with uncountable nouns:

I've got some money.
Have you got any rice?

We can use a little and much with uncountable nouns:

I've got a little money.
I haven't got much rice.

Countable	Uncountable
dollar	money
song	music
suitcase	luggage
table	furniture
battery	electricity
bottle	wine
report	information
tip	advice
journey	travel
job	work
view	scenery

c. Decide whether these nouns are countable (C) or uncountable (U)

The children are playing in the garden.
I don't like milk.
I prefer tea.
Scientists say that the envirenment is threatened by pollution.
My mother uses butter to prepare cakes.
There are a lot of windows in our classroom.
We need some glue to fix this vase.
The waiters in this restaurant are very professional.
My father drinks two big glasses of water every morning.
The bread my mother prepares is delicious.
Drivers must be careful; the road is slippery.
Some policemen are organizing road traffic to avoid any accidents.
I bought three bottles of mineral water for our picnic.
I'd like some juice please!
Successful condidates will join the camp later this year.
A rise in oil prices is inevitable since there is more and more worl demand for energy.
The exercises on this website are interesting.
Dehydrated babies must drink a lot of water.
Adult illiterates learn through a special government programme.
I met some nice people when I was walking along the beach.

4. How much or how many?

Exercise

Pages

Lesson 3

c. Decide whether these nouns are countable (C) or uncountable (U)