Countable and Uncountable- compare your days and weeks

By: Alex Case

Theme: Time

Study Area: Nouns

Page: /

Lesson Plan Content:

Countable and uncountable compare your days and weeks

Work in pairs or threes. Ask about and tell each other about your days/ weekends/ weeks and do the thing or things here that your teacher tells you to:

Find whose day, weekend or week was healthier.
Find things where your amount/ number is higher than your partner (e.g. “a lot of sugar” vs “quite a lot of sugar”)
Find things below which have been exactly the same for you and your partner today/ this weekend/ this week.

Useful questions to ask each other

“I… How about you/ And you/ What about you?”

“How many…?”/ “How much…?”

Useful phrases to comment on what your partner says

“Me too”/ “That’s (more or less) the same for me”

“(Really?) I…”

“That sounds…”

“I think yours is more… than mine”/ “I think yours is …er than mine”

Suggested countable and uncountable things to talk about

alcohol
arguments
biscuits/ cookies
bread
butter
calories
cakes
cigarettes
coffee
deadlines
emails
excitement
(physical) exercise
fast food/ junk food
fatty food
fibre
free time
fried food
fruit
fruit juice
fun/ enjoyment
healthy food
meals
red meat (e.g. beef)
overtime
relaxation
sleep
soda (coca cola, etc)
stress
study
sugar
sweet food
tea
telephone calls
time with family
time with friends
vegetables
vitamins
wine
work

Suggested amounts to talk about

a couple (of)
a few…s
a little
a lot (of)… (s)
a/ an/ one
about ten
almost no… (s)
bag(s)
bottle(s)
box(es)/ packet(s)
can(s)/ tin(s)
carton(s)
cup(s)/ mug(s)
glass(es)
jar(s)
(kilo)gram(s)
litre(s)/ pint(s)
loaf/ loaves (of…)
many…s
not any… (s)
not many…s
not much
one or two…s
quite a lot (of) (…s)
slice(s)
so many…s
so much
some… (s)
teaspoon(s)
very few…s
very little

Tell the class one thing you learnt about your partner and see if anyone else shares that.

Ask about anything above you couldn’t understand or couldn’t use, working together to make a true statement and/ or question that you could ask each time.

Countable uncountable grammar presentation

Without looking above, add “-s” to all the (countable) nouns below which can take a plural -s. Write a crossed off “-s” next to the other (uncountable)) ones. If you aren’t sure, think about if they take “How many…?” or “How much…?” in questions, and/ or think about if they need “-s” or not with “some…”

alcohol argument

biscuit/ cookie bread

butter cigarette

deadline excitement

(physical) exercise fibre

free time fruit

fruit juice fun/ enjoyment

meal red meat

beef overtime

relaxation sleep

soda (coca cola, etc) stress

sugar tea

telephone call time (with family/ with friends)

vegetable wine

work

Check your answers with the previous worksheets. Countable nouns already have “-s” on those worksheets.

Put words which can go before countable and uncountable nouns like “many” into the two columns below. Some words can go with both. Write a noun with each one, with the correct use of “-s” or no “-s”.

… + countable noun(s)

… + uncountable noun

How many potatoes?

How much cheese?

Hint: Five can go with both countable and uncountable.

Put these words into the two columns above:

a couple (of)
a few
a little
a lot (of)
a/ an/ one
about ten
almost no
many
not any
not many
not much
one or two
quite a lot (of)
so many
so much
some
very few
very little

Look at the use of “-s” or no “-s” on the second page to help with the task above.

Check your answers as a class or under the fold below.

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