Countable nouns can be singular or plural:
- a dog
- a child
- the evening
- this party
- an umbrella
- dogs
- some children
- the evenings
- these parties
- two umbrellas
Before singular countable nouns you can use
a/
an:
- Bye! Have a nice evening.
- Do you need an umbrella?
You cannot use singular countable nouns alone (without
a/
the/
my etc.):
- She never wears a hat. (not She never wears hat)
- Be careful of the dog. (not Be careful of dog)
- What a beautiful day!
- I've got a headache.
We use
a/
an ... to say what kind of thing something is, or what kind of person somebody is:
In the plural we use the noun alone (
not some .. . ):
- Those are nice chairs. (not some nice chairs)
| Compare singular and plural: |
| A dog is an animal. | Dogs are animals. |
| I'm an optimist. | We're optimists. |
| Tom's father is a doctor. | Most of my friends are students. |
| Are you a good driver? | Are they good students? |
| Jane is a really nice person. | Jane's parents are really nice people. |
| What a lovely dress! | What awful shoes! |
| We say that somebody has a long nose / a nice face / blue eyes / small hands etc. : |
| jack has a long nose. (not the long nose) | jack has blue eyes. (not the blue eyes) |
Remember to use
a/
an when you say what somebody's job is:
- Sandra is a nurse. (not Sandra is nurse)
- Would you like to be an English teacher?
You can use some with plural countable nouns. We use some in two ways.
(1)
Some = a number of / a few of / a pair of:
- I've seen some good movies recently. (not I've seen good movies)
- Some friends of mine a re coming to stay at the weekend.
- I need some new sunglasses. (= a new pair of sunglasses)
Do not use
some when you are talking about things in general (see Unit 75):
- I love bananas. (not some bananas)
- My aunt is a writer. She writes books. (not some books)
(2)
Some = some but not all:
- Some children learn very quickly. (but not all children)
- Tomorrow there will be rain in some places, but most of the country will be dry.
