Gareth King - Colloquial English - A Complete English Language Course

Anything else?

HELEN:

Let’s see . . . some apples and some cat food.

ASSISTANT:

How many apples would you like?

HELEN:

Half a dozen.

ASSISTANT:

And how much cat food?

HELEN:

Two tins1 will do, I think. How much does that come to?

ASSISTANT:

£5.86, please.

HELEN:

[ gives the assistant the money ]

Thanks a lot.

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ASSISTANT:

Thank you. Bye.

HELEN:

Bye.

1 tin– a sealed metal container for food. The food in the tin can be either uncountable (cat food, ham, rice pudding) or countable (carrots, potatoes), but the tin itself is always countable! Another word for tinis can, which is used in the UK

particularly for drinks. For an explanation of uncountable and countable nouns, see Language point 23 below.

Idioms

– will domeans ‘will be enough’

– come tomeans ‘add up to’; how much does it come to?means

‘what is the total that I have to pay?’

Language point 23 – counting and

quantity

There are two types of noun in English:

• nouns such as cup, egg, garden, book, mousewhich are COUNTABLE (C)

• nouns such as water, milk, butter, foodwhich are UNCOUNTABLE

(UC)

They are used in different ways.

Countable nouns

• can have PLURALS: cups, eggs, gardens, books, mice

• are used in the singular with a/ an: a cup, an egg, a garden

• can be used with numbers: three mice, seven books

• are used with many: how many cups?, too many books

Uncountable nouns

• usually can’t have plurals: ‘waters’, ‘milks’, ‘butters’, ‘foods’

• usually can’t be used with a/ an: ‘a water’, ‘a milk’, ‘a food’

• are used with much: how much water?, too much food

• usually can’t be used with numbers: ‘three foods’,

‘seven waters’

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Both uncountable and countable nouns:

• can be used with the: the garden, the gardens, the milk Both uncountable and PLURAL countable nouns:

• can be used with some, anyand a lot of: Have you got any bread?

Have you got any eggs?

Give me some apples and some cat food

There are a lot of children here

There’s a lot of snow outside

• can be used with QUANTITY WORDS:

a box of matches

a pint of milk

Be careful!In colloquial English we don’t use muchand many

on their own, except in NEGATIVE sentences – instead we say a lot of:

There’s a lot of food on the table

not ‘There’s much food on the table’

There are a lot of people in the meeting

not ‘There are many people in the meeting’

But

There isn’t much food on the table

There aren’t many people in the meeting

And we do say how much, too much, how many, too many, etc.

Notice in Dialogue 1 that Helen says:

Have you got any bread left?

not

‘Have you got bread left?’

We generally put some(statements) and any(questions and negatives) before plural nouns and uncountable nouns.

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More examples:

I need some eggs

I need some milk

Has Sandra got any children?

Has Sandra got any food in the house?

We don’t want any biscuits

We don’t want any cake

Exercise 1

Candace has made shopping list. Look at the items on it and write whether they are countable nouns (C) or uncountable nouns (UC).

1 eggs

____

2 milk

____

3 apples

____

4 newspaper

____

5 butter

____

6 carrots

____

7 washing-up liquid

____

8 twelve bars of chocolate

____

9 cheese

____

10 biscuits

____

11 rice

____

12 bottles of water

____

13 a chicken

____

14 an English book

____

15 toothpaste

____

16 light bulbs

____

17 toothbrush

____

18 playing cards

____

19 tin of rice pudding

____

20 box of soap powder

____

Exercise 2

Bert’s also made a shopping list. Complete it by adding either a/ an or somebefore each item.

1 ____ soap

11 ____ eggs

2 ____ teabags

12 ____ newspaper

3 ____ loaf of bread

13 ____ melon

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4 ____ rice

14 ____ orange juice

5 ____ bag of carrots

15 ____ extra bottle of milk

6 ____ butter

16 ____ pencil

7 ____ toothbrush

17 ____ pizzas

8 ____ box of matches

18 ____ yoghurts

9 ____ kilogram of ice cream

19 ____ sour cream

10 ____ coffee

20 ____ bottle of wine

Dialogue 2

Back at home, Simon asks Helen how the shopping went.

SIMON:

Did you get any milk?

HELEN:

Yes, I got a pint.

SIMON:

And did they have any bread left?

HELEN:

Yes, they did. I got us a brown loaf.

SIMON:

And what else did you get?

HELEN:

I got some apples and two tins of cat food.

SIMON:

Good – we were right out of cat food.

HELEN:

And I got some matches.

SIMON:

Right – would you like a cup of tea?

HELEN:

[ suddenly remembers ] Oh hell! I didn’t get any teabags! And we’re out of them, aren’t we?

SIMON:

Afraid so. I’ll get some later.

HELEN:

OK.

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Idioms

• we’re right out of( cat food) means ‘We haven’t got any cat food left’, ‘the cat food has all gone’; and so we’re out of themmeans

‘we haven’t gone any more of them left’.

• leftmeans ‘remaining’:

How many have you got left?

There are three biscuits left

There’s nobody left in the building

• we use oh hell!when we are cross or angry about something that has happened – it’s not rude, so you can use it when you like, but maybe avoid using it in formal or sensitive situations.

Oh hell, I’ve locked myself out!

Oh hell, we’ve missed the bus!