This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 213, How to 80-20 Countable and Uncountable Nouns in English.
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Offer ends August 10th. all earsenglish.com connection hello lindsay how are you hey aubrey i'm feeling great how are you i am excellent thank you happy to be recording with you me too me too but i have some i have a question for you to start off today's episode are you ready yes i am all right so what is some good advice that you have received recently Oh, okay.
I heard on a Peloton ride, Cody Rigsby said that you should drink a full glass of water before you drink any coffee in the morning.
And so I took that advice and I've been doing that.
And I do feel like I think it's supposed to boost your energy or your metabolism just to get some water because you're sort of dehydrated when you wake up.
I feel like that was really good advice.
Interesting. Good advice. Yeah. Cause I know you've shared on the show that you have a hard time drinking water during the day.
Right. And so, yeah, that makes total sense.
I've tried that before. It's so hard to get that glass down.
I just want that warm cup of coffee to be honest.
I It's like pulling teeth to get me to drink the whole thing, but I can feel that it would be good for me.
That's amazing. That's amazing. Good, healthy move, Aubrey.
I love it. Well, what are we getting into today?
Yeah, I love that you used this word advice because we're talking about countable and uncountable nouns today.
Mistakes are often made by language learners with these, and advice is one of them.
And this is likely because some nouns are countable in other languages, but uncountable in English, right?
Yes, we weren't, you know, we weren't against translating directly.
And I do it. I do it when I speak Spanish.
I tried to do it when I spoke Japanese. That did not work out well.
We do it. It's normal. But as we move to that 99% fluency level, we definitely want to get away from translating directly, guys.
Okay? Exactly, right? Just for example, with French, in English, information, advice, and business are uncountable nouns.
They're plural like that. We don't add an S.
But in French, they are plural. Les informations, les conseils, les affaires.
So if I'm translating directly, I would make mistakes in French.
And anyone who speaks French, this also exists in Spanish and lots of other languages.
It's very easy to make these mistakes. Yeah, it's probably also true in Portuguese is my guess.
And so be careful. Big warning. Do not translate from native language, right?
All right. Then where do we go from here?
Knowing that we want to make sure you guys are clear about First of all, which words are countable and uncountable and how the grammar changes?
Because we use these words very often in business, in business emails.
It's vital to be aware of them and use them correctly so that our message is clear.
Yes. Okay. So are we going to start with the first one, the first example of what we need to be clear on here?
Yes. So countable nouns, right, are things we can't count or things that we can count.
They have a singular and a plural form. So we use the articles a or an for singular nouns like a task, an idea.
And what about for plural nouns, Lindsay?
So we could say, why don't you fill us in here, Aubrey?
I'm a little lost. Yeah, so for plural nouns, we use the, if a definite article is needed, like the task.
And no article is speaking generally, like tasks in general, or the idea, the idea, or ideas, right?
So the definite article changes depending on if a noun is in its singular or plural form.
And that's where the grammar is tricky for uncountable nouns.
This works differently. Yeah. Yeah, and just to go back to what we were talking about, a task, an idea, just as a bonus today, Aubrey, how do we know when to use a versus an?
This is tricky too, right? A lot of people assume it's the letters, like, oh, what letter does the word begin with?
But it's not, it's actually the sound, right?
So if a vowel sound comes next, we use an, an idea.
Yeah. An honest man, even though H is a consonant because it's a vowel sound.
Honest, we use an, but for words that start with a consonant sound like task, we need a, a task.
So it's kind of coming back to what is easy to say because it's hard to say a honest man, right?
Right. It's hard. So I have to say an honest man, even though we need to link the words.
Exactly. Okay. That was a little side piece of bonus here.
Let's keep going. Let's share a couple examples here with these nouns.
Can you give me an update on the tasks we discussed in the meeting?
You see these different articles we're choosing.
We need an update, but then we're talking about specific tasks, the tasks, a specific meeting, the meeting.
But what if we're talking more generally?
Give us an example. Right. Here we're starting broad.
This is a general statement. Please send ideas by Friday.
We're not talking about these specific ideas, right, Aubrey?
Exactly. So there's no article because we're keeping it general here until we start narrowing down about specific ideas.
I hear the assumption is kind of that there haven't been any ideas created yet.
They're going to be brand new, right? Exactly.
They're hypothetical ideas at this point.
Mm-hmm. Yeah, totally. Okay. So the second piece, let's talk about uncountable nouns.
Yeah. So these are things we cannot count.
These don't have a singular form. So we cannot use a or an.
They're already in their plural form. We don't ever add an S or an ES to make them plural.
They're already plural. Give us some examples, Lindsay.
Okay, so for example, research, information, these are some of the ones that we listed at the top of the shelf.
Advice, knowledge, work, training, feedback.
You see a lot of words we use often in business English are uncountable nouns.
So a common mistake we might hear is like, I would like to share an advice or I would like to share advices.
Because if you're not aware that this is an uncountable noun, you would think, oh, I need to have this article before I need to add an S. So it's vital that you're aware of which nouns cannot be uncountable. cannot have these articles 100 so those are incorrect what we just mentioned what would be a correct way to say that then if we want to say that i would like to share advice or if you have the definite article because you're talking about specific advice do you remember the advice your mother gave you right i also like the idea of throwing in some i would like to share some advice Absolutely.
And this always works. And this will help when you're working with countable and uncountable nouns, have a quantifier.
So as a quick note, the quantifiers we use are different for countable and uncountable nouns, right?
Many or much, a great deal of, or a multitude of.
So we will do a follow-up episode for that because there's a lot that goes into it.
So hit follow and you'll get that next episode, part two of the series.
I love that. A multitude. I'm excited to dive into that word, by the way.
That is a very high-level word that I think our listeners could use in the business world, for sure.
Yes, for sure. So just like for countable nouns in their plural form, you need the if a definite article is needed and no article if speaking generally.
Give us a couple examples, Lindsay. Okay, so for example, did you see the information I sent you?
So here are you, let me say that slower again.
Did you see the information I sent you? Okay.
Right, you're talking about specific defined information that you have already sent.
So we need that article, the definite article, the information. versus the next example where we haven't defined exactly where's this information coming from?
What is it going to be? So I'm going to say information will be sent out later today, right?
Yes. And the mistakes you could see if we're not aware that this is an uncountable noun, you might accidentally say an information or informations.
So you must be aware that with these verbs, you'll never, these nouns, you'll never add a or an, you'll never add an S. It's already plural as is.
Yes, so important to know. Yes. Excludes clearance.
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Exclusions apply. See details online. Okay, Aubrey, so is there anything tricky here that we need to know?
Anything we should be super aware of? Of course, because it's English, right?
Of course. So some nouns are tricky because they can be both countable or uncountable depending on the context.
For example, the words email and business, two of maybe the most used words in the business world.
Oh my gosh, they are. They're everywhere, of course, right?
If you transcribed all of our Business English episodes, you'd see these words a thousand times.
Very top of the list. Yeah. So email is countable when using it to mean letters, right?
Did you see the emails I sent? And we do add the S to make it plural because it's countable.
You could count the number of emails. Okay, good.
So for example, Aubrey, how many emails do you typically have when you sign in on Monday morning? yeah I know mine isn't as bad as yours I might have 20 25 how many do you usually have feels like a hundred I don't even count it's a lot it's definitely two or three pages worth of emails yes gotta hit that little arrow to get to the next page of emails well usually I don't get through them until like Friday of the next week to be honest I mean it's bad it's bad but that's another waiting to hear from Lindsay she apologizes If you wrote to me in October, then just kidding.
It's not quite that bad. And then there's another instance, right?
Another kind of situation. It's uncountable, right?
When it's used to mean mail. Mail is an uncountable noun.
You would just say, I need to check my email.
You wouldn't say, I need to check my emails.
So this is really tricky because we see mistakes with this a lot if you're not aware that it can be both depending on the context.
Yeah. And this would be very, a very 80, 20 approach for our listeners, guys, for you to focus on this, right?
20% of your effort creates 80% of your results.
If you just focused on these two words and other common words like these that are tricky, you could actually have some great results.
Clean up some errors. Yeah. Yes. Eliminate a lot of mistakes.
So let's dive into this next one. Business.
It's countable when it means a company, right?
She started several businesses. We use it to, you know, as a synonym for a company.
Yes, or it's uncountable when you're talking about the activity of the business.
So, well, this is kind of an idiom, but we say, let's get down to business.
Yes. All right. We just say the business world.
Business is going well. How's business? Yeah.
We're talking about the activity of business.
Yeah. Interesting. Okay. So where to now?
Yeah. So let's do a role play here. We've given you guys a lot of uncountable and countable nouns that we use all the time in business English.
This is definitely not all of them. There are a lot of, you know, uncountable nouns in English, but these you'll use the most often at work.
Okay. So let's do a role play. Yeah. And so I'm excited for this one because we're talking about an upcoming conference.
I actually love conferences and I hope that the All Ears English team one day will be able to go together to a conference.
I think that'd be amazing. That would be amazing.
I can't wait. What is it going to happen?
We don't know, but we hope soon. So here we're talking about an upcoming conference.
Here we go. All right. I'll start us out.
I sent you an email with information about the upcoming conference.
Did you get it? Yes, I was able to book my flight.
I hope the weather holds out. For sure. Last year, even though flights weren't delayed, the traffic was terrible.
I was the worst. Oh, hey, I emailed you some research that we'll need to share at the conference.
Yes, I saw that, and I've been meaning to send feedback.
What do you think is the best way to present it?
Let's print the information on a flyer and display it on the screen as well.
Sounds good. Awesome. We used a lot of them here, these uncountable nouns that are common in English.
Everywhere. Yeah, these are everywhere. So you said, I sent you an email with information about the upcoming conference.
Nice. And we actually had email there too, right?
And email because you're talking about one specific letter.
So yeah, we've got both those. And then information, you don't have any article because you're talking about general information.
Yes. And then what did I say? And you said, I hope the weather holds out.
Weather is also uncountable. So you'll never see it made plural with an S. You wouldn't say weather, right?
It's uncountable. For sure. I mean, you could say storms, plural, but never the word weather.
That would never happen. Yeah. And then you said, for sure, last year, even though flights weren't delayed, the traffic was terrible.
Yes, traffic is also uncountable, right?
You'll never add an S to it. It's already plural.
And then what else? What else? And you said, I emailed you some research that we'll need.
Again, uncountable. You won't see researches.
We don't make this plural. It's already plural as an uncountable noun.
So important for our listeners to know if they're translating.
Yeah, don't do it, guys. And then you said, yes, I saw that and I've been meeting to send feedback.
Yes, I hear language learners make mistakes with this quite a bit to say, I sent feedbacks, right?
You're thinking of it as individual pieces of feedback, then you would say pieces of feedback or notes, right?
So feedback is uncountable. It's already plural.
You won't add an S to it. Sometimes when I'm speaking casually, I get lazy and I say feedbacks, but it's only when I'm talking to coworkers or it's just trying to say the thing quickly.
Yes. Well, and you make a good point because in casual conversation, right, we're speaking quickly.
These mistakes might be made accidentally.
Right. When you're really trying to be careful in an email where we're trying to impress someone, that's when it's a little more vital.
Or even if you know you can't say feedbacks, sometimes in your mind, you have to go back and say pieces of feedback.
It takes a long time. So there are situations where you'll hear, but don't do it.
Almost like slang. It's almost like slang.
It becomes slang. So we're not abdicating that.
Be careful there. But sometimes we do break the rules.
This is true. And the last one, again, we said information.
Oh man, this is probably the most common one to just say information.
We say it all the time. Yeah. Let's print the information on a flyer and display it on the screen as well.
Yeah. This is a super important episode, Aubrey.
Yes, definitely. Right. We see a lot of mistakes with this.
And like you said, 80-20. This is something that if you are aware of these nouns and how they change instead of translating directly from your first language, you could eliminate a lot of these mistakes.
And we don't have all the time in the world to study English, but we need our English to be up to a certain level to succeed at work.
So focus on these words that really matter.
That is a really good use of time, Aubrey. yes and it'll definitely make your message more clear avoid misunderstandings and confusion which that's so important at work anytime we can save ourselves time by preventing misunderstandings absolutely we should take that all right good stuff so listeners hit follow on business english and we will be back soon take care of them all right talk soon bye Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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