Nouns and number
The number of a noun shows in its ending and in the words around it: each report,
several reports, the reports are. The ending can mislead or be missing altogether (people is plural with
no -s, news is singular with one), and then the number is read off the neighbours: the word in
front of the noun and the verb beside it.
The number you cannot see in the ending
Two lines from an editing task. Each may carry one extra word, or none at all.
Click the word that does not belong. If the line is correct as it stands, choose “no extra word”.
Exam levelAs hard as the real exam. A miss here shows a gap in what you know.- 03
- 04
What was extra here was an article, but no rule about articles decided it. The a failed to stand
because advice is not counted in pieces; which article belongs in front of a word that can be
counted is the business of another article.
The rule and the table
A noun is either countable, which means it can be counted in pieces: one report, two reports. Or
it is uncountable: advice, information, research, money. Such a word never takes an -s,
and the verb beside it always stands in the singular. news is uncountable too, even though it ends
in -s: that -s does not make it plural, and the phrase is the news is. Russian puts «новости»
and «деньги» in the plural, German puts „Nachrichten“ and „Informationen“ there, and the hand writes
the news are, the money are, informations; the English is the news is, the money is,
information.
Uncountable is not the same as small or abstract, and the list cannot be worked out from meaning. You
can point at furniture and count the chairs, and furniture is still uncountable; the same goes for
luggage, equipment and homework. English gives such words a counter instead: a piece of advice,
an item of news, a bit of research. Going the other way, a handful of words that look singular take a
plural verb: police always, staff in British English if the writer chooses.
Which number a given gap needs is told to you by the sentence itself, in two ways: through a
determiner, that is, a function word in front of the noun such as each, both, these,
two, and through the verb beside it. Both are visible to the eye.
The words with no number get a line of their own: where there are no pieces, many and few cannot
be put beside them. Fill in the empty cells and watch each pair come apart.
| Countable: reports | Uncountable: advice | |
|---|---|---|
| not many, not much | few | |
| a lot of it | much | |
| how much exactly (the ___ of) | number |
Where you write the number yourself
Write in each gap the form of the word given in brackets.
The stem gave away the word, and the number had to be read off the line. In the letter cloze the word is given away even more generously, with its opening printed and the exact number of boxes shown, and there is still room to miss.
Twice a determiner to the left of the gap named the number: all three, three.
The number you can see in the verb
In Lücken-Satzteile a half-sentence from a shared bank goes into the gap. In each half-sentence,
find the verb first.
These days each of the nine repair stands outside the clubhouse ___, and nobody asks for a key any more.
Exam levelAs hard as the real exam. A miss here shows a gap in what you know.The number of the subject settled the choice, and the subject itself was not where it was being looked for. In the open cloze there is no bank at all: exactly one word goes in, and that one word is the verb.
The verb turned out to be a witness: the number of the subject can be read off it, and the form of the verb can be read off the subject, and it works both ways.
Quantity words: each, both, most, few
Some words in front of a noun do more than name the number: every one of them carries a rule of its own, and editing breaks exactly these rules by adding one word too many.
| Word | Rule | Example |
|---|---|---|
each, every | a singular noun and a singular verb | each rider brings |
both | exactly two things, never three | both hands |
most, many, some + of | of only before the, my, these… or a pronoun | most members, most of the members, most of them |
half of, most of, all of, some of | the verb agrees with the noun after of | half of the members are, half of the money is |
a number of + plural | a plural verb | a number of members have |
few / a few | few means not many, a few means some | few came, a few tools went missing |
fewer / less | fewer with plurals, less with uncountables | fewer tools, less money |
Click the word that does not belong. If the line is correct as it stands, choose “no extra word”.
Exam levelAs hard as the real exam. A miss here shows a gap in what you know.- 00
- 01
- 02
- 03
- 04
Quantity inside the claim
In editing the error could be seen inside a single line. Below is a statement about a text: decide whether it is true, and find the sentence that shows it.
Two steps. Click the sentence in the text that your answer rests on, then mark the statement true or false.
Exam levelAs hard as the real exam. A miss here shows a gap in what you know.The Ostbahn cycling club has 240 members, and about half of them ride to work every day. Most of the members joined after the city opened the new river path in 2018. The club owns nine repair stands, and all of them stand outside, unlocked, day and night. Only one of the stands has ever been damaged. Equipment is expensive, so the club buys tools in bulk and lends them out a week at a time. "We lose a few tools every winter, but not many," the club secretary says. Two of the founders still run the Saturday rides, and both of them are over seventy. None of the younger members has offered to take that over yet. Every new rider gets a printed map, although the club has no money for anything larger. Several local firms pay for the tools, and one of them also pays for the website. The city gives the club no funding at all, and it never has. Much of the advice on the club noticeboard comes from members, not from the committee.
Statement
All of the repair stands have been damaged at some point.
After an item like that one temptation follows: to believe that all, every, none and most in
a statement give away a falsehood by themselves. They do not: a statement with such a word can be
true or false like any other. A quantity word is not evidence but a question, and the text has the
answer to it.
Click the one word of the statement that the passage contradicts.
Above exam levelHarder than the exam on purpose. A miss here is not a gap in what you know.One word. Nothing marked yet.
None of the younger members has offered to take that over yet.
Statement
One quantity word, and the statement has turned over. Checking it takes the same move as in the gaps: find the place in the text where this thing is counted, and compare.
What to take with you
| What assigns the number | the sentence around the word: the determiner on the left or the verb beside it |
Where you type the -s | letter cloze: the ending falls inside the boxes |
The verb after each of the | agrees with each to the left of of, not with the plural to its right |
| Quantity words | each + singular; both = two; most of the + noun; half of the members are; fewer + plural |
| Words with no number | never an -s; much/little, not many/few; singular verb |
| Irregular plurals | a short list: people, children, feet, teeth; -f → -ves |
| In reading | quantity is part of the claim, not a sign of a lie |
| In editing | the extra each, both or of beside a noun |
Five places where this pays or costs you:
Word formation: where the stem in brackets has to take the right number Letter cloze: where the -s ending falls inside the boxes you fill in Lücken-Satzteile: where the verb of a half-sentence shows whether it fits the subject True / false: where quantity is part of the claim and has to be checked Articles: a, an, the or nothing, once the number is settledWas this article helpful?