I. Expert-project activity

Work in groups of four and study the following material on countable and uncountable nouns. You have five minutes to become ‘experts’ on this grammar. Prepare a mini presentation of this grammar point and a couple of examples to test it. Then peer-teach your material. Choose the most creative group.

Singular or plural?

Some nouns have only a plural form (with s) and take a plural verb. The clothes were in the dryer, NOT The clothe was...

The goods have been sent to you direct from our factory, NOT The good has... My belongings are all packed up in suitcases.

These are nouns that can be used only in plural: arms (weapons), belongings (the things you own), clothes, congratulations, contents (what is inside something), customs (bringing things into a country), earnings (money you earn), goods (products, things for sale), outskirts (the outer part of a town), remains (what is left), surroundings (the environment, the things around you), thanks, troops (soldiers)

Some nouns have both a singular and a plural form with a difference in meaning.

The storm did a lot of damage to buildings.

The newspaper had to pay £2 million in damages after printing untrue stories about a politician.

Some nouns have a plural form (with s) but take a singular verb. These are nouns taking a singular verb: news, linguistics, economics, mathematics/maths, physics, politics and statistics, athletics and gymnastics, billiards and darts, measles.

The news was worse than I had expected.

Some nouns ending in s have the same singular and plural form, for example: crossroads, means, series (e.g. a series of TV documentaries), species ( kind, type).

This means of transport saves energy. Both means of transport save energy.

This species of insect is quite rare. All these species of insect are quite rare.

Works (a factory) and headquarters (a main office) take either a singular or a plural verb.

The steel woks has/have closed down.

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