Article: singular/plural of nouns

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Since we don’t have article and don’t care so much about singular-plural thing,
I am terrible in their usages.
This is my short composition below.
Could you kindly correct my mistakes, mainly article/singular-plural thing.
Thank you very much!! Phoo :wink:

Hello everyone, I am Little Bunny Phoo Phoo, an interpreter. Today, I’d like to talk about what an interpreter does and how to become an interpreter based on my experience.

One of the most typical questions I have ever been asked is what kind of business I am interpreting for. Let me introduce what I did last week for your better understanding of this job. On Monday, I went to a board of directors meeting of an automobile company. On Tuesday and Wednesday, in two days altogether, I attended eight IR meetings with foreign investors. IR stands for investors relations. A typical style of a IR meeting is that foreign investors visit a company to listen to their future business strategy or management policy of the company. You can invest in any company regardless of the type of business as long as it has been listed. Therefore, I visited many different types of companies such as a precision machinery manufacture, a food manufacturing industry, iron and steel company and a finance company. On Thursday, I went to a training seminar for people from developing nations hosted by the Ministry of Justice. And on Friday, I was at a reception for 50th anniversary of a company. Interpreting is not always a cushy job, because in this way, it involves a wide verity of industries and also many different ways of interpreting such as consecutive interpreting, whispering interpreting and simultaneous interpreting. But having said that, I really like this job because I can visit many different places and meet various kinds of people everyday. I think one the most important qualifications to be an interpreter is to be able to enjoy meeting new people and communicating with them.

Then next, I’d like to talk about how I became an interpreter. To be continued

2

Hi Phoo!

Although I think this isn?t the right place to introduce yourself I liked to know your native location. Might it be China? And what about your name? Does it have any meaning at your homeland? Sorry, I think there are other people, especially native English speaker, who can help you more than I could!

Michael

3

Hi,

I’m afraid that I am not a Chinese but a Japanese.
Plus, this composition is not about myself, a kind of fiction.
I just wrote this as my practice of writing English
based on what I’ve heard from my mother, she is an interpreter.

I wish I could be like her in the future.
That’s why I am studying English very hard now.
Especially I am working on those article and singular-plural concepts which we don’t have in Japanese.

Well, I don’t think this is the right place to talk about this kind of stuff either. I should stop talking about myself.

I just need someone to correct my mistakes in my composition, that’s all. Still waiting! :wink:

4

Hi Phoo!

I hope you don?t mind about my mistake concerning your native land. I think you have good success at studying the English language! I also think that you can get lots of practice in writing English letters or posts at this site. I myself do the same. Torsten certainly will transplant this topic into the forum New members. Therefore it is absolutely correct if you go on talking about yourself at this forum for the moment.

Further, it might be interesting how you speak about, for instance, a group of people if you refer to it as several persons?

Michael

5

Hi Michael,

Thank you for you information but I prefer being here than being transferred to the forum site.
I think the internet is definitely a very useful tool that you can communicate with people from all over the world
in real time however, I don’t think that this is a right place to find friends or something.
I am not comfortable to talk about myself to faceless people, plus
my main purpose and the only reason to come here is learning English.

It could be a good idea to join the forum to practice English but I just don’t want to confuse learning foreign language
with socializing as some people do,
so I’d rather be here to learn English grammar and vocabulary than talking to people with whom I’ve never met.

Hope you understand what I mean.
You can learn English in your own style and so do I.

Good luck! :wink:

6

Hi Phoo,

You might be interested to read some notes I’ve written for the site on the use of the articles in English:

english-test.net/lessons/16/index.html

Alan

7

Hi Alan,

I’ve just read your notes.
I’ve also read marny different types of English grammar books.
All books say, “if it is a countable noun, you should ----.” type of explanation
however, what the most difficult part for me is that
how I should know if it is countable or uncountable.

It is easy for things which I can touch and see the clear-cut outline of
things such as “a dog” “a chair” “an apple” however for
things you canno’t see the shape nor the outline,
I don’t know how I judge if it is countable or uncountable.

You mentioned those words as countable nouns as below in your notes.

  1. an essential quality
  2. problems
  3. a look
  4. the terror

To me, for those abstract nouns, how come do English speaking people
think they are countable?
Can you see a clear-cut outline between each “quality”?
To me, “quality” is shapeless, intangible and impossible to count.

Some native English speaker told me that
I can count “a good time” but cannot count “time”.
but both are/is “time”, just the same to me.

So the most grammar book is useless to me as they are premised on
that everbody knows what a cunutable/uncountable noun is.

I would rather know how native English speakers feel things and
distinguish the types of nouns in their images.

I read some book which was interesting.
It said, “A tire company has many tires in its storehouse,
one day the storehouse was burnt down because of a terrible fire.
People saw much tire remain at the site after the incident.”

“Tire” is considered as a countable noun when it has a shape before the fire
however, the tire melted down by the fire, people see it as uncountable.

8

Hi Phoo,

I think you need to forget whether the noun is abstract or concrete. The important thing is the meaning of the word. Time is an uncountable noun in this sense: Time goes by very quickly on holiday. In this sentence with the meaning of appointment, it is countable: The doctor can see you at a time to suit you. The best time is in the afternoon.In your sentence:

In the first sentence we are talking about different/individual tyres -A tire company has many tires.

In the other sentence: People saw much tire remain at the site after the incident." we are not talking about individual tyres but tyre material (mainly rubber).

Again I could say: Fear is something people try to control used in an uncountable way. But I can say: A lot of people experience fears (emotions of being afraid) that are unfounded. And in that sentence it is countable.

Alan

9

Hi Alan,

Thank you for your reply.
I am thinking the meaning of the word as well as whether the noun is abstract or concrete.
Sitll, it is hard to determine.

Your examples are very hard to me to understand.

  1. Fear is something people try to control.
  2. A lot of people experience fears.

What is the deference between “fear” in sentence#1 and “fears” in sentence#2?
Why does one can be counted and the other cannot?
Again, “fear(s)” is/are “fear(s)”, the same to me…
Do people image different things when they say “fear” in #1 and “fears” in #2?

How about this case,
I like salad, I like an apple too.
So I sliced an apple into many peaces and put them in salad.
How should I say:

  1. I made salad with many apples. (but still one apple)
  2. I made salad with much apple.

By the way, is salad countable??

It may sound as if I’ve never learned however,
as I said, we don’t have this concept in our own language
and very very hard to understand.

I have to learn each case one by one although it takes too long,
I guess. :cry:

10

Hi Phoo

I’m surprised by your questions because your interpreter story was quite good. Only a couple of small mistakes…

I think Alan’s advice was good. I think you should forget about “concrete” and “abstract” (at least for a while) and focus on the meanings of words instead.

Let’s take two of the examples from the quote above:

quality
What kinds of qualities can people have? How many can you think of?

problem
What kinds of problems can people have? List a few.

(I really want you to answer the questions.)

Basically (overly simplified), if it would be logical to put a number in front of a word, then it can be counted.

Which of the following words could you put the number 2 in front of (and of course also add an “s” to the end):
air (the stuff we breathe)
lie (something people say which isn’t true)
story
book
theory
water
waterfall
drop (of water)
shadow
sunlight
lightbulb

Are any of the words above difficult for you to classify as countable or uncountable?

Amy

11

Hi Phoo,

Let’s take the word fear both as a countable and an uncountable noun. Fear is an emotion just as love/hatred/anger and so on. In the sentence: Most firefighters experience fear when they try to extinguish a fire( in other words they feel afraid), fear is uncountable because you cannot in that sentence put a number on it.

In the sentence: People have different fears such as a fear of flying/a fear of spiders/a fear of death,fear is countable because we can put a number on the different fears. Again death can be countable and uncountable. As I said in the previous sentence: a fear of death fear is countable and death is uncountable. But in this sentence: It has been reported that there were several deaths in the recent air crash, it becomes a countable noun.

Alan

12

Hello Amy,

Thank you for your time to have written to me.
If I wouldn’t make so many mistakes in my composition,
that’s because I have read many books written in English
and I have seen how English speaking people say for some words
or expressions however, I am just imitating them without
deeply understand why they say so.
So whenever I encounter an unfamiliar word or expression,
I just don’t know how to judge by myself.

In fact, I am always not so secure in using
those articles and singular/plural thing.
Therefore, I always wanted to have more confidence in the usage
of these things.

Now, let me try those questions you arranged for me.

First, I know when you talk about “category” or “kind”,
most of nouns turn to “countable” even they are uncountable in nature,
right?

As for “quality” of people, I can think of “kindness”, “weakness”,
“strength”, “slyness”, “loveliness”, “toughness” and so on.
I could say, “These are qualities all human has.”
However, if you are not talking about “category”.
“Quality” itself is not countable.

Here again, you are talking about “category” so it is countable.
According to the dictionary, “problem” is always considered as “countable”,
but I don’t know why. A word, “trouble”, one of the synonym of “problem” is , most of times, treated as “uncountable”.
What is the difference of these two words? Why is this one countable and not the other?

< other words>

  1. air (the stuff we breathe)
  2. lie (something people say which isn’t true)
  3. story
  4. book
  5. theory
  6. water
  7. waterfall
  8. drop (of water)
  9. shadow
  10. sunlight
  11. lightbulb

Basically, gas, liquid or fluid are uncountable, because they are shapeless therefore, 1 and 6 are uncountable.
As for 7 and 8, even though they are liquid, they form certain shapes or one group of water,
so I think they are countable.
4 and 11 are countable because they are solid and have certain shape.
3 and 5 are also countable as they are considered as “definite ideas”.
For 9, I think it is countable because it has a shape and outline even it is not solid.
I think 10 is uncountable because it scatters all over and doesn’t have a definite shape.

The most difficult one among these is 1, “lie”.
I know “lie” is countable since I have read and heard it many times however,
I am always wondering why?

Just imagine, if someone told you many lies to cover up one bad thing, such as crime
over many years.
Each lie he said during that long period must somehow connect each other, so you could say that
it could be one whole big lie to cover up one thing.
Or you can consider many small lies, it depends on how you see it.
Therefore, you cannot distinguish one lie from other.
To me, “much lie” or “less lie” sounds more reasonable.

At last,
I like to discuss these things till I can really get better understanding
but some people don’t.
So I really appreciate your response to my questions which may sound a little bit
too much argumentative.

A. The difference b/w “problem” and “trouble”
B. Why do people think “lie” is countable.

13

Ups,
I don’t know how come these underline appears in my previous writing?? :? :?

Hi Alan,

Thank you for your further explanation.
I am getting better picture what you are saying.

When I read those sentences your wrote carefully and think,
then I can see the difference and maybe, I can use these
words correctly.

However, what amaze me most is that you guys can do it
instantly while speaking or writing…
Moreover, all of you have the same sensibility to those things,
it just amazing!! :shock: :shock:

What do you think how I can train those ability quickly?

14

Actually, I have this problem as well. I really hate the complex sigular and plural in English. It is really, really terrible.

Additionally, I hate the article “the”. it is also very very horrible to me!

I talked to several native speakers about how to use sigular and plural forms and “the”, it seems I can get nothing.

Most of the grammar book or internet information is totally meaningless at all.

I really have problem to deterimine when a abstract noun is sigular or plural and when I should use “the” or omit “the” before a noun.

15

In my mother language, there is no any form changes for singular or plural concepts. There is no articles at all. Also. there is no any changes for the verbs used for different tenses. If we want to express a plural concept, we can put some adverbs such as “several, many, a few, etc.” to indicate plural meaning. If we want to express different tenses, we may put “yesterday, already, in the future, etc.” instead of making complicated changes in verbs. See how simple my language is.

I strongly suggest that English speakers can forget these complex things and make English easy. Joking, but it may be helpful.

16

I heard that French is even more complicated than English. Nouns are divided into two categories: male and female or masculine and feminine. This seems very funny to me. How to determine the gender of a computer, a mouse, or a keyboard? This classification does not make any sense to me. I am totally confused.

17

Dose any one can help with the following a few sentences? Thank you in advance!

His speech is full of emotion(s). (Should I use “emotion” or “emotions”?, why?)

Professors are exchanging teaching experience(s).
He has rich experience(s) in teaching.(Should I use “experience” or “experiences”?)

It is difficult to find (the) useful information of this set of data? (Should I add “the”?)

(The) primary objective of this project is to look for a method/ methods to solve this problem. (should I add “the”? should I use “methods” or “a method”?)
Solving problems needs correct method/a method/ methods. (which one should I use?)

18

Just be glad that you are not learning German.

We have 3 different articles, and our plural is not simply an ‘s’ at the end.

Count your blessings. :wink:

19

=========================================
You are saying I am lucky, aren’t you? Great!

20

English is sometimes confusing. Here is an example: “He does not come for her.” Meaning 1: He comes, but not for her. Meaning 2: He dose not come. The reason is “her”.

In my language, we may say like" He comes not for her" or “He, because of her, does not come” The is no confusion.