CHUYÊN ĐỀ 3

UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS/ HAVE GOT/ HAS GOT/ THERE IS/ THERE ARE
I. UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS:

Uncountable nouns are for the things that we cannot count with numbers. They may
be the names for abstract ideas or qualities or for physical objects that are too small
or too amorphous to be counted (liquids, powders, gases, etc.). Uncountable nouns
are used with a singular verb. They usually do not have a plural form.

Uncount nouns often refer to:

 Substances: food; water; wine; salt; bread; iron

 Human feelings or qualities: anger; cruelty; happiness; honesty; pride;

 Activities: help; sleep; travel; work

 Abstract ideas: beauty; death; fun; life

 Mass nouns: fruit; furniture; lugguage; information

We do not use uncount nouns in the plural and we do not use them with the
indefinite article, a/an

We ate a lot of foods > We ate a lot of food

We bought some new furnitures > We bought some new furniture
That’s a useful information > That’s useful information

We can use some quantifiers with uncount nouns:

We can use some quantifiers with uncount nouns: some (any), a lot of (lots of), a
little (little), much, a large amount of…, a great deal of…, plenty of…

He gave me some useful advice.

We haven’t got much rice.
They gave us a lot of information.
We usually treat uncountable nouns as singular and use a singular verb.

This news is very important.

Your lugguage looks heavy.

Sometimes a noun can be a countable nouns and sometimes it can be an

uncountable noun.

I made a cake this morning. (a whole cake – countable noun)

Do you want some cake? (a piece of cake – uncountable noun)
A kilo of cucumbers (individual cucumbers – countable noun)
I put cucumber in my sandwich. (a piece of cucumber – uncountable noun)
I love coffee with hot milk. (uncountable noun)
I’ll have a coffee, please. (a cup of coffee – countable noun)

Using articles with uncountable nouns

Uncountable nouns cannot take the indefinite articles “a” or “an” in a sentence,
because these words indicate a single amount of something. For example:

 “Would you like tea?” (correct)

 “Would you like a tea?” (incorrect)
 “Do you have (some/any) information?” (correct)
 “Do you have an information?” (incorrect)

(We often use the words “some” or “any” to indicate an unspecified quantity of
uncountable nouns. We’ll investigate this more in a later part of this section.)
Although uncountable nouns cannot take a or an, they are sometimes able to take
the definite article the, as in:

 “Have you heard the news?”

 “The furniture in my living room is old.”

However, this is only the case if a specific uncountable noun is being described. For
example:

 “I am looking for accommodation.” (correct)

 “I am looking for the accommodation listed in this advertisement.” (correct—
references a specific accommodation)
 “I am looking for an accommodation.” (incorrect)
 “I am looking for the accommodation.” (incorrect without additional
information)

Uncountable nouns are not plural

Third-person singular vs. third-person plural pronouns

Just as uncountable nouns cannot take the indefinite articles “a” or “an” because
there is not “one” of them, it is equally incorrect to use third-person plural pronouns
with them, as they are not considered a collection of single things. For example:

 Person A: “Your hair looks very nice today.”

 Person B: “Yes, I washed it last night.” (correct)
 Person B: “Yes, I washed them last night.” (incorrect)

Note that single hairs become countable. If there are two hairs on your jacket, you
can say “hairs” or use the plural pronoun “they.” The hair on your head, however, is
seen as an uncountable noun.

Plural forms of the noun

We also cannot make uncountable nouns plural by adding “-s” on the end. Again,
they are grammatically regarded as single, collective units. For example:

 “We bought new camping equipment.” (correct)

 “We bought new camping equipments.” (incorrect)

 “The teacher gave us a lot of homework.” (Correct. We can use the quantifier
“a lot” to indicate a large amount of an uncountable noun.)
 “The teacher gave us many homeworks.” (Incorrect. We also cannot use the
quantifier “many” with uncountable nouns, because it refers to individual things.)

Subject-verb agreement
Because uncountable nouns cannot be plural, it is very important to use the correct
subject-verb agreement. Subject-verb agreement refers to using certain
conjugations of verbs with singular vs. plural subjects. This happens most noticeably
with the verb to be, which becomes is or was with singular subject nouns
and are or were with plural subjects. Because uncountable nouns are
grammatically singular, they must take singular forms of their verbs.
Here are a few examples illustrating this distinction:

 “The furniture in my living room is old.” (correct)

 “The furnitures in my living room are old.” (incorrect)
 “The furnitures in my living room is old.” (incorrect)

 “Their behavior is not good.” (correct)

 “Their behaviors are not good.” (incorrect)

 “The news is good.” (correct)

 “The news are good.” (incorrect)

Measurements of distance, time, and amount

A notable exception to the subject-verb rule we just discussed relates to countable
nouns that are describing measurements of distance, time, or amount. In this case,
we consider the sum as a singular amount, and so they must take singular forms of
their verbs. For example:

 “$20,000 has been credited to your account.” (correct)

 “$20,000 have been credited to your account.” (incorrect)

 “I think 50 miles is too far to travel on foot.” (correct)

 “I think 50 miles are too far to travel on foot.” (incorrect)

 “Wow, two hours flies by air when you’re having fun!” (correct)
 “Wow, two hours fly by air when you’re having fun!” (incorrect)

Making uncountable nouns countable

If we want to identify one or more specific “units” of an uncountable noun, then we
must add more information to the sentence to make this clear.

For example, if you want to give someone advice in general, you could say:

 “Can I give you advice?” or;

 “Can I give you some advice?”

But if you wanted to emphasize that you’d like to give them a particular aspect or
facet of advice, you could not say, “Can I give you an advice?” Instead, we have to
add more information to specify what we want to give:

 “Can I give you a piece of advice?”

By adding “piece of” to the uncountable noun advice, we have now made
it functionally countable. This means that we can also make this phrase plural,
though we have to be careful to pluralize the count noun that we’ve added, and not
the uncountable noun itself. For example:

 “Can I give you a few pieces of advice?”

Using quantifiers with uncountable nouns

As we’ve already seen, certain quantifiers (a kind of determiner that specifies an
amount of something) can only be used with uncountable nouns, while others can
only modify countable nouns. While we will examine these more in depth in the
chapter on Determiners, here are a few examples that cause particular confusion.

Too – Too Much – Too Many

We use too + an adjective to mean “beyond what is needed or desirable,” as in, “It
is too big.”
Too much, on the other hand, is used to modify uncountable nouns, while too
many is used with countable nouns—they are not used with adjectives. For example,
the following sentences would both be incorrect:

 “It is too much big.”

 “It is too many big.”

One particular source of confusion that can arise here is the fact that much can be
used as an adverb before too to give it emphasis, as in:

 “It is much too big.”

We also must be sure not to use too much with a countable noun, nor too many with
an uncountable noun.

 “I have too many pieces of furniture.” (correct)

 “I have too much pieces of furniture.” (incorrect)

 “I have too much furniture.” (correct)

 “I have too many furniture.” (incorrect)

Fewer vs. Less

The conventional rule regarding less vs. fewer is that we use fewer with countable
nouns and less with uncountable nouns. For example:

 “I have fewer friends than Jill has.” (correct)

 “I have less friends than Jill has.” (incorrect)

 “I have less money than he has.” (correct)

 “I have fewer money than he has.” (incorrect)

The rule carries over when we add words to an uncountable noun to make a
countable phrase (as we looked at above). We can see this distinction in the
following examples:

 “I want less toast.” (toast is uncountable)

 “I want fewer pieces of toast.” (pieces of toast is countable)

 “There is less water in the jug.” (water is uncountable)

 “There are fewer cups of water in the jug.” (cups of water is countable)

Measurements of distance, time, and amount

As we noted above, measurements of distance, time, or amount for nouns that we
would normally consider countable (and thus plural) end up taking singular verbs.
Likewise, these terms also take the word less, most often in the construction less
than. For example:

 “$20,000 is less than we expected to pay.”

 “We walked less than 50 miles to get here.”
 “We have less than two hours to finish this project.”
 “I weigh 20 pounds less than I used to.”

Note, however, that we generally can’t use less before these kinds of nouns:

 “We have less $20,000.” (incorrect)

 “I ran less 10 miles.” (incorrect)

Less is also used with countable nouns in the construction one less _____, as in:

 “That is one less problem to worry about.”

Fewer can also be used (albeit less commonly), but the construction usually changes
to one ______ fewer, as in:

 “That is one problem fewer to worry about.”

Rule or non-rule?
It is important to note that many grammar guides dispute the necessity of this
supposed “rule,” referencing that it was in fact implemented as a stylistic preference
by the 1770 grammarian Robert Baker, and that fewer and less had been used
interchangeably for countable and uncountable nouns for hundreds of years before
that. Specifically, it is considered by some as acceptable to use less with countable
nouns, especially in informal or colloquial writing and speech.

As long as the sentence does not sound awkward, it is probably safe to do so.
However, many still regard the fewer vs. lessrule as indisputable, so it is
recommended to adhere to the rule for professional, formal, or academic writing.

Quiz

1. Which article can be used with uncountable nouns?

a) a

b) an

c) the

d) A & B

2. What verb form is generally used with uncountable nouns?

a) singular

b) plural

c) singular in the past tense only

d) plural in the past tense only

3. Which of the following is an uncountable noun?

a) person

b) friend

c) intelligent

d) news

4. Which of the following is not an uncountable noun?

a) love

b) piece

c) wood
 d) water

5. Which of the following sentences is correct?

a) “We are waiting for a news.”

b) “You can never have too many love.”

c) “These homeworks are very hard.”

d) “Could I have less water, please?”

Have got and have
Have got and have mean the same. Have got is more informal. We
use have (got) here to refer to both verbs:

Have got (have/has + got) is used to talk mainly about possessions or

personal attributes.

I've got a new computer.

They haven't got any red chilli peppers.
She's got long, brown hair.
He hasn't got many friends.

So the negative is have/has + not + got?

Yes, but don't forget the contraction.

Daisy hasn't got her books yet.

You haven't got 50 p, have you?

Is has got only used for things?

No, it's also used for timetabled events or illnesses.

I've got swimming practice at seven.

Fred's got a terrible cold.

You can use have got for abstract things too.

I've got an idea for the weekend.

I've got all the inspiration I need ... up here!

Can I use have got in the past? For example: I had got a racing bicycle when I was
younger.

No, it's only used in the present tense. For the past you use had without got.

I had a racing bicycle.

What about the question form?

You use have/has + subject + got.

Have you got everything you need?

Have we got any red chilli peppers at home?
Have you got a minute?

Hang on a minute, I've heard Do you have … ? a lot too.

Yes, have got is more used in British English and have is more American. The
question and negative form is different with have – you need to use the
auxiliary do/does.

I have two sisters. (American English)

Do you have change for ten dollars? (American English)
He doesn't have a clue about soccer. (American English)

In British English we use have got more in speaking and have more in writing – it's a
little more formal.

OK, I've got it now!

Very clever! Yes, you can also use have got to mean 'understand'.
We use have (got) to talk about possession, relationships, characteristics
and illnesses. In these contexts, it is not used in the continuous form:

She’s got two cats and a dog.

She has two cats and a dog.

Not: She is having got two cats and a dog.

Have you got a drill?

Do you have a drill? (more formal)

How many brothers have you got?

How many brothers do you have? (more formal)

She’s got a new boyfriend.

She has a new boyfriend. (more formal)

She’s got a delightful voice.

She has a delightful voice. (more formal)

Have in other cases

Have được sử dụng với rất nhiều hành động thường ngày, ví dụ như các bữa ăn, đi
tắm hoặc nói về việc có một khoảng thời gian tồi tệ hoặc vui vẻ.
Cụ thể:

 Ăn uống

Have a dinner/breakfast/lunch = ăn tối/ăn sáng/ăn trưa

Have a brunch = ăn bữa giữa trưa và sáng, thường là khi đã bỏ ăn sáng
Have a supper = ăn bữa đêm, ăn khuya

Have a cup of tea = uống một cốc trà

Have a cigarette = hút một điếu thuốc

 Tắm rửa, nghỉ ngơi, thư giãn

Have a bath = tắm (tắm bồn)

Have a shower = tắm vòi hoa sen
Have a swim = đi bơi

Have a rest = have a break = nghỉ ngơi (break thường là nghỉ ngơi ngắn
giữa giờ xong lại tiếp tục công việc, rest là nghỉ ngơi với thời gian dài hơn
break)

Have a party = tổ chức một bữa tiệc

Have a holiday = have a vacation = đi nghỉ mát, đi du lịch
 Have a nice time = have a fun time = có một khoảng thời gian vui vẻ
Have fun = vui vẻ

 Tai nạn, trải nghiệm

Have an accident = gặp tai nạn

Have an experience = có kinh nghiệm, đã từng làm gì

Have a dream = có một giấc mơ

Have a nightmare = có một cơn ác mộng

 Nhìn, nói chuyện

Have a chat = have a talk = have a conversation = nói chuyện với ai đó

Have a look = nhìn

 Sinh con

Have a baby = sinh em bé

 Gặp khó khăn

Have difficulty = gặp khó khăn

Have trouble = gặp vấn đề
Ví dụ:
See you again soon! I hope you have a nice time with your family.
Hẹn gặp lại. Chúc bạn có một khoảng thời gian vui vẻ bên gia đình.
My teacher had a baby yesterday.
Cô giáo tôi sinh con vào hôm qua.

There is, there’s and there are

We use there is and there are when we first refer to the existence or presence of
someone or something:

There’s a letter on your desk. Julia brought it from the mail room.

Not: It’s a letter on your desk.

There are three Japanese students in my class.

There is and there’s are both singular forms. We use there’s more commonly in
informal speaking:
 There is a new cafe in the centre of town which sells Indonesian food.

She’s very determined and there’s no chance she will change her mind.

There are is the plural form of there is and there’s:

There are two new buildings next to the school. They are both science buildings.

Lưu ý:

Nếu danh từ trong chuỗi liệt kê bắt đầu là danh từ số ít hoặc danh từ không đếm
được, chúng ta dùng There is:

There’s a book, a pen, three rulers and a bottle of water on the table. (Bởi vì a
book là danh từ số ít nên ta dùng There is và không quan tâm các danh từ được
liệt kê phía sau.)

There’s milk, a banana, cheese and tomatoes in the fridge. (Bởi vì milk là danh từ
không đếm được nên ta dùng There is không quan tâm các danh từ được liệt kê
phía sau.)

Nếu danh từ trong chuỗi liệt kê bắt đầu là danh từ số nhiều, chúng ta dùng There
are:

There’re candies, a birthday cake, chicken, pizza and a lot of ice-cream in John’s
birthday party. (Bởi vì candies là danh từ số nhiều nên ta dùng There are và không
quan tâm các danh từ được liệt kê phía sau.)

 Câu hỏi How many…?

Còn một dạng câu hỏi khác cũng thường sử dụng các cấu trúc trên, đó là How
many? Điểm đặc biệt của cấu trúc này là chỉ sử dụng với danh từ số nhiều.

How many + plural noun (danh từ số nhiều) + are there +…?

How many brothers and sisters are there in your house?

How many oranges are there in your lunchbox?

How many fish are there in the fish tank? - There are two.

 Câu hỏi How much…?

Còn một dạng câu hỏi khác cũng thường sử dụng các cấu trúc trên, đó là How
much? Điểm đặc biệt của cấu trúc này là chỉ sử dụng với danh từ không đếm được.

How much + uncountable noun (danh từ không đếm được) + is there +…?

How much milk is there? - There’s some.

How much bread is there? - There are two loaves.