A ‣ Bit and piece

You can make many uncountable nouns singular and countable by adding a piece of or a (little) bit of. Similarly, you can make such nouns plural with pieces of or bits of. Bit is less formal than piece and they are not always interchangeable. Bit can be used with all types of nouns. Piece tends to be used more with uncountable nouns. Bit suggests a smaller amount than piece.

How many pieces of luggage have you got with you?

The police collected bits of information from different sources.

Chopin wrote some wonderful pieces of music.

Before you go to England I should give you two bits of advice ...

He spends all his money buying new bits of computer equipment.

B ‣ Words that go with specific uncountable nouns

Weather

FORECAST

Today’s weather will be variable. In the north there are likely to be heavy showers (of rain). The sunny spell (of weather) that we have had this last week will continue in much of the south although there may be occasional rumbles of thunder and flashes of lightning in some areas with some quite loud claps of thunder in one or two areas. These will be followed by a few spots of rain but gusts of wind should soon blow them away and the sunshine will then return.

See Unit 6 for more weather words.

Groceries
‘I need a loaf of bread, a couple of slices of ham, two bars of chocolate, a tube of toothpaste, two cartons of milk and three bars of soap.’ (slice can also be used with toast, bread, meat and cheese)

Nature
Look at the ladybird on that blade of grass!
What’s happened? Look at that cloud of smoke hanging over the town!
We could see little puffs of smoke coming out of the volcano.
Let's go out and get a breath of fresh air.
Put another lump of coal on the fire, please. (lump can also be used with sugar)

Other words
I had an amazing stroke of luck this morning.
I've never seen him do a stroke of work. (only in negative sentences, more emphatic than a bit of work)
I've never seen him in such a fit of temper before.
The donkey is the basic means of transport on the island.
Jeans must be the most useful article/item of clothing ever invented.
There was an interesting item of news about France on TV last night.

C ‣ A state of

Nouns used with a state of are usually abstract and include chaos, tension, confusion, health, disorder, uncertainty, poverty, agitation, disrepair and flux [continuous change], e.g. The transport system is in a state of chaos.