Ron's ESL Blogs

Some words are generally considered as uncountable, but you can add “-s” or “-es”. When you do that, you change the meanings of those words. Here are a few examples:

water  - waters

It is clear that “water” is uncountable, but when we talk about the water in the oceans, in the seas, we must add “-s”. So we say “sea waters”. Here is an example from the Bible – God said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water.” God was talking the waters in the ocean. He used its plural form.

wood – woods

“Wood” is material for furniture. It is uncountable. When we add “-s”, the meaning changes. “Woods” refers to trees and plants in a wooded area, a small forest.

glass – glasses

When we talk about window glass, “glass” is uncountable. However, in ” Would you like a glass of water?” “glass” is countable here. You can say: “Three glasses of water!” Here the meaning has already changed. The glass is the container of the drinking water. Another example is “a pair of glasses”. Here you must always use the plural form when you talk about the glasses you are wearing.

There are some other strange words. “Mail” is uncountable, but nowadays, we use “emails” all the time. “change” is countable. We say “many changes”. But when we talk about money: “Do you have some change?” The “change” is uncountable. You don’t say “Do you have some changes? (wrong)” We can “small talk”, but we don’t say “small talks”.

Some words are countable, but you never add “-s” even though you are using them as countable nouns. “Police” is such a word. You say “Police are coming!” Not “Police is coming!” (wrong). “Cattle” and “aircraft” are two other examples: ”Japanese aircraft were strong on maneuverability.” ”Cattle were inclined to remain in the territory.”

“People” is a countable noun, but you don’t need to add “-s”. When you add “-s”, it means peoples from different nations.

– Ron Lee

Count and non-count nouns are difficult for ESL learners because in their native languages, they probably don’t have such things. For example, in Chinese, a noun is a noun; there’s no distinction between a countable noun and an uncountable noun.  There’s no plural forms, and there are no definite articles “the” and indefinite articles “a/an.”

In English, you must be very careful, because the descriptive words or phrases that we use before a countable noun or an uncountable noun are sometimes different. We use “many” before a countable noun, but we must use “much” if the noun is uncountable. Also if it is uncountable, you cannot add “s” or “es” to the end of the word.

However, it is not always easy to tell if the word is countable or uncountable.  Here are a few non-count nouns which ESL students often think are count nouns:

advice; equipment; mail; news; luggage; rice; cabbage; corn

- Ron

There are five vowel letters: a, e, i, o, u among 26 English letters. When we talk about the differences between “a” and “an”,  we say that “a” is used before a consonant and “an” is used before a vowel. But ESL students often make the following mistakes in their writing:

- an university (X)

- a hour (X)

- a SUV (X)

- an one-time password (X)

- an unit (X)

- an European (X)

- a honor (X)

Why do students make these mistakes? Because they misunderstand their teachers. “An” is used before a vowel sound, not just a vowel letter. “U” is a vowel letter, but it has two pronunciations. When it is pronounced as a vowel sound, we use “an,” such as “an uncle,” “an umbrella,” but “a uniform,” “a university” because “u” in these two words is pronounced as a consonant.

“H” is sometimes not pronounced in an English word, such as “hour,” and “honor.” Since “h” is not pronounced, both words start with vowel sounds. So we should say “an hour” and “an honor.” In the words “hotel” and “half,” “h” is pronounced, so we say “a hotel” and “a half.”

“European” starts with a vowel letter “e,” but it is not pronounced as a vowel sound. So you need to say “a European.” It’s the same reason for “one-time.” It starts with the vowel letter “o,” but the letter is not pronounced as a vowel sound. So we should say “a one-time password.” We say “an SUV” because it starts with a vowel sound, although “S” is a consonant letter      – Ron Lee

When we talk about something that happened in the past, we use the past tense. However, there are also times when we use the past tense to express something else.

a). To express a wish
A wish is not something that happened in the past, but we need to use the past tense.
e.g.
I wish I had a car. (I do not have a car.)
He wishes he won the lottery.

In the above sentences, the past tense has nothing to do with the past time.

b). In the sentence pattern “It’s time …”
When “It’s time” followed by a clause, the past tense is used in the clause.

e.g.
It’s time we left.
It’s time we took design seriously.
It’s time you sold your old car.

Here we are not talking about what happened in the past. If I say “It’s time you sold your old car.” to you, you still have your car, and you are driving it.

c). To show politeness
Sometimes we use the past tense because we want to be polite. The past tense is more polite than the present tense.

e.g.
I wonder if you can come to dinner tonight.
I wondered if you could come to dinner tonight.
I was wondering if you could come to dinner tonight.

If you are inviting a friend, you use the first sentence. If you are inviting your boss, you probably will use the second or the third sentence. The third, the past progressive tense, is even more polite than the second.

d) In the “if” clause

We use the past tense in the “if” clause, if something is not a fact, or it’s unlikely to happen.

e.g.
If it rained tomorrow, I would not come. (I think it will rain tomorrow.)
If I got a raise, I would throw a party. (I don’t believe I will get a raise.)

When we use the simple present tense, it means that we believe it will happen.

e.g.
If it rains tomorrow, I will not come. (I don’t think it will rain tomorrow.)
If I get a raise, I will throw a party. (I think I will get a raise.)

Generally speaking, the past tense is used to express the past time, but there are special uses of the past tense. We need to pay attention to these special uses in learning English.

- Ron Lee

The present continuous tense is usually used to express something that is happening right now.
e.g.
I am listening to music.
He is smoking now.
However, the present continuous tense is frequently used to express the future.
e.g.
I am cleaning my house this weekend.
I’m picking up my sister at the airport tomorrow.
I’m seeing the doctor this afternoon.

From these examples, we can see that the present continuous tense can be used to express both the present and the future. The meaning is determined by the time phrase used. If “now” or “right now” is used, it means something is happening right now; if a future time phrase is used, such as “tomorrow,” “next month,” the meaning is that something will happen or will be happening in the future. Sometimes, there is no time phrase. The time is understood in the context.