Ofcourse it is easy lesson , but has complication and more details than other lesson in English Grammar, it is the ( count and non count nouns ) the ploblem is easy to distinguish between them in the appearancce i.e. the count nouns have singular form and plural form while the (non count nouns ) have the singular form only , and most of the non count nouns are abstract e.g. knowledge , information .etc…
some of them are a meterial as substances ( irion , ink , wool , cotton , furnture , air , gas , petrol , water , and so on )
Ofcourse it seem to be easy as the word [b]water[/b] we can not say waters only in a sentence like :
The waters of RED SEA are salt. but here as adjective.
2- the word air for example all English teachers said it is non count noun , yes no one was able to count the air volume of automosphere , but if we pressed a certain volume of air to 5 leters or 4 leters , now the volume is countable , additional to that we can partative the measures by using some or many , much , little , alittle , etc…
my question :
Here is a problem for me and any English reader , I think the native English him self ( English man ) the true owner of the language will fall to different between count and non count nouns , or can caliculate all nouns , so I find the trouble beside me is general , so I seek and ask the the authors to find solution i.e to put roles to make a list for nouns as I have cleared ,one say this noun is countable others counter him then the issue became dificult to understand . In one word I appeal to make unique Gramar for all the world ( The international English Grammar ).
Mohammad Ahmad. oh, how much I find myself agreeing with you.
The need for grammar is obvious, but as for countable and uncountable nouns, simple future and future continuous, and blah, blah, blah, is ridiculous and, in my opinion, an absolute unnecessary burden on students, and surely most off-putting to newcomers to the language.
A rule-book written by academics, to keep themselves in a job, and appear superior to others.
Sorry, rant over.
Hi,
I agree that grammar is a bore! In the stuff I’ve written for the site over the years I have tried to show it in its simplest form and also in its most relevant form. The ‘rules’ should only be consulted if there is an element of doubt but I must maintain that grammar is a useful framework when you want to explain something and the words for the different grammatical functions are also useful. Just imagine you wanted to ask someone to help you while you’re putting a nail in a piece of wood. Now if you asked them to hand you that brown bit of wood that’s got a piece of metal on the end of it and one bit is shaped differently from the other, how tedious life would be! Wouldn’t it be better to ask them to hand you the hammer? After all once you know the word ‘hammer’, life becomes much easier. If you also understand the meaning of the word ‘adjective’, how much easier it is to refer to other adjectives in other sentences? Or am I being too simplistic? I hope not!
Alan
Nowhere near simplistic Alan.LOL.
brown, piece, metal, wood, are vocabulary, and this is definitely required, but have nothing whatsoever to do with grammar.
Please qualify the need for such things as reflexive verbs,and other such blah, blah.
It surely is an irrelevance in having to learn this … ( in my opinion ).