... a something of something ...
 |
| Have a cup of tea! |
In this lesson you can learn how to talk about parts of things.
Usually, words like tea, milk, sugar, water, love, paper do not have plural forms.
All of these are WRONG:
- two waters
- some loves
- eight milks
Instead, we say:
- some water
- a little love
- milk
This is because many words in English are uncountable: we cannot count milk, sugar, water, paper etc.
When we want to make these words plural, we use the something of something structure as in a cup of tea, a bottle of milk and a glass of water. Here are some more examples:
|
|
 |
| a cup of tea | a bowl of cereal |
 |
 |
| five cubes of sugar | a loaf and some slices of bread |
 |
 |
| a glass of beer | a spoonful of honey |
 |
 |
| a cloud of dust | three jars of pickles |
 |
 |
| a ball of string | a portion of chips |
 |
 |
| a slice of cake | a block of ice |
 |
 |
| a sheet of paper | a drop of water |
 |
 |
| a small pile of sand | a bar of chocolate |
 |
Task 1: How many can you remember? |
 |
Task 2: Now try to put the right words next to the pictures in this table. |
 |
six ______ of bread |
 |
a ______ of pizza |
 |
many ______ of stone |
 |
six ______ of wool |
 |
a ______ of smoke |
 |
a ______ of cereal |
 |
twelve ______ of marmalade |
 |
a ______ of beans |
 |
four ______ of ketchup |
 |
a ______ of music |
 |
a ______ of ice |
 |
a ______ of wine |
 |
five ______ of blood |
 |
a ______ of soup |
 |
many ______ of soap |
 |
a ______ of stones |
| These are the right answers. Well done if you got them all! | |||
|
|
six loaves of bread |
|
a slice of pizza |
|
|
many blocks of stone |
|
six balls of wool |
|
|
a cloud of smoke |
|
a spoonful of cereal |
|
|
twelve jars of marmalade |
|
a cup of beans |
|
|
four portions of ketchup |
|
a sheet of music |
|
|
a cube of ice |
|
a glass of wine |
|
|
five drops of blood |
|
a bowl of soup |
|
|
many bars of soap |
|
a pile of stones |
 |
If you forget the right word ... |
It is better to use the right word, of course, but if you can't remember it, use:
- a little ... (for
small amounts). For example:
Can I have a little tea?
I'd like a little ice in my drink
etc. - lots of ... (for
large amounts). For example:
There was lots of smoke
There is lots of soup - some (for any
amount). For example:
Can I have some cake?
I bought some marmalade