How to Express Amounts in English Basic English Grammar

oh hi everybody welcome back to our

weekly live stream my name is Alisha and

today we’re going to talk about how to

express amounts in this lesson I’m going

to review countable and uncountable

nouns and I’m going to talk about some

expressions you can use to describe how

much or how many of something you have

or you want or you need so we have a lot

of good stuff I think that is good for

beginners to review in this lesson but

I’m also going to cover some topics that

are more intermediate or advanced some

small points some small kind of nuances

that you can think about for your word

choice so I hope there’s something for

everyone in today’s lesson all right I

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share all that jazz we’re going to talk

about amounts today amounts so during

today’s lesson please send me your

example sentences send them in the chat

and I will try to check them live and

but you know just to practice today’s

topics so I’m going to share the video

and then I’m going to begin today I’m

going to start by talking about

countable and uncountable nouns a little

grammar review to begin today and then

I’m going to talk about some expressions

you can use to describe large and small

amounts so alright video shared let us

begin let’s start over here first

countable and uncountable nouns this is

a key point for today’s lesson so I’m

going to slow down the speed at which I

am speaking so let’s begin with

countable nouns what is a countable noun

we can break this word down count and

able count and able plus noun means a

noun that we are able to count a noun

that we can count in other words so that

means nouns we can count with 1 2 3 etc

as in TC means

etc and so on and other things so a noun

remember a noun is a person place or

thing

yeah so nouns we can count with one two

and three when we make the plural form

meaning more than one one is singular

more than one is the plural form when we

make the plural form of a countable noun

we have one basic way in speech we add

an S sound so like book becomes books we

have that s sound but when we’re

spelling in writing we have a couple of

different endings for countable nouns

these change depending on the spelling

the ending of the original now so I’m

not going to talk about the spelling

rule here today but just keep in mind

that there are different ways to spell

the plural forms of these so we add

either S or ES or IES IES if the

original noun ends in Y as it does here

so basically a countable noun takes an S

sound to get the plural form so book

becomes books kiss becomes kisses candy

becomes candies and so on so we add an S

to make a countable noun plural so to

describe more than one of accountable

now so a couple points then there are

irregular irregular countable nouns so

irregular means not regular ear is a

prefix which means not or no so regular

means like normal or typical so not

regular irregular these are a few

examples of irregular countable nouns

which means they do not follow this s

rule for example one child two children

so child becomes children in the plural

form three children four children one

person two people in these cases and

with a few animals there’s no change

between the countable or the sorry the

singular and the plural form so like

sheep becomes Shi

like one sheep two sheep mouse becomes

mice as well

so there are a few things there are few

nouns that have like these kind of

strange plural forms please keep this in

mind for today I’m going to focus mostly

on just these regular countable nouns

that take NS if you have any questions I

will try to check in real time you can

ask questions thanks Leah yes okay let’s

continue then so this is countable nouns

for today’s lesson everything at the top

of the board refers to countable nouns

I’ve split today’s whiteboard into two

parts so up upper part the top is

countable nouns the bottom then on the

other hand let’s talk about the second

part here uncountable nouns so we talked

about countable we broke down countable

so things we can count nouns we can

count here unhhhh uncountable

so the prefix on means like not again

it’s a negative thing

so not countable nouns nouns we cannot

count with one two three etc so when we

want to couch these nouns when we want

to talk about units we use counter words

so for example these are some very

common uncountable nouns so money time

water air so we don’t say like one money

too many three money we use what’s

called a counter word so for example

with money in like US dollars a dollar

is countable cents is countable one

dollar two dollars we use smaller units

inside that category inside that now to

talk about the smaller pieces of that

same thing with like time so we don’t

say one time two time or something like

that well in separate situations we talk

about time in units like minutes hours

days years those things are countable

time as a concept is not

so this is a key difference uncountable

nouns and countable nouns for today o ki

dokie that is the introduction for

today’s lesson I don’t see any questions

from you so I’m going to take one short

break and then we’re going to get into

the main part of today’s lesson the the

main focus so one quick break and then

we’ll continue on so I showed you a

couple of these things earlier in

today’s lesson I showed you the yeah I

showed you a couple of these earlier

these are the free PDFs vocabulary and

phrases pression z' and so on you can

find these from below the video if you

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there are different topics that you can

download this one for pets this one is

about like dog and cat breeds so you can

talk about your pet this one is the

travel one some expressions if you’re

going to be traveling sometime soon this

says USA but you can use these in any

english-speaking country really so check

this one out others food and restaurants

a very popular topic with you usually so

you can check these out you can download

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please check YouTube Facebook okey dokey

okay some questions I don’t see

questions

bori on facebook says is salad and

uncountable now know we can count salads

one salad - salad three salads yeah

that’s fine okay let’s continue to part

two today’s lesson we’re going to talk

in part two about small amount small

amounts here so if you’re just joining

today’s topic is expressing amounts and

we’re going to cover phrases expressions

you can use now to talk about small

amounts and

large amounts some review some new

things in here

I hope so as you join please don’t

forget to like and share the video if

you haven’t already alright onward small

amounts let us discuss small amounts so

when you want to talk about not a lot of

something I’m going to cover a couple of

expressions for countable nouns and

uncountable nouns please note this is

not everything that we use this is just

an introduction I think to some very

common expressions first let’s talk

about countable nouns expressions you

can use with countable nouns first a few

a few and few so I want to talk about

these first let’s look at some example

sentences a few and few are very similar

but there’s a key difference in terms of

nuance there’s a feeling a small feeling

difference here so a few for example the

company bought a few laptops the company

bought a few laptops so a few refers to

a small amount you may know like a

couple a couple or a couple up I’m gonna

talk about here which is usually like to

imagine like people like a couple refers

to two people a few in my mind is like

three four so more than a couple but for

here the company bought a few laptops

this has like a neutral feel it’s like a

report yeah the company bought a few

laptops this sentence however uses few

the company bought few laptops the

company bought few laptops so the

difference here is just the article yeah

so a few versus few the difference here

is that this sentence with no article

has the feeling of a negative result it

has the feeling that like someone is

disappointed or unhappy or this is not a

good thing like the company bought few

laptops we needed a lot so it’s kind of

like using no article he

gives that like unhappy feeling if you

want to just make a simple report use a

few of you hmm

so please make sure to consider this

when you are choosing between a few and

few with your countable nouns the same

thing is true with an uncountable noun

expression I will talk about later okay

uh let’s continue to the next one so I

just described a couple so when you use

a couple think of a couple as like two

of something so a couple of you may hear

as well some people drop off like I need

a couple chairs or I need a couple of

chairs you can use both of those things

actually it’s kind of up to you so a

couple of something usually refers to

like two of something second a second a

third a handful of a handful of so a

handful hand full so this maybe you can

guess the meaning of this word if we

break this down hand and full yeah so

hand literally actually meaning a hand

full the spelling is different but it

means like something to fill up your

hand

so a handful of something you can

imagine how much you can pick up a

handful means like not a like a large

amount of something but not quite just a

couple or a few a handful so maybe like

five or six of something so a handful of

again some people drop this of in speech

like I picked up a handful of cookies in

the kitchen so you can choose to include

this or not I would I would include a

handful I would use of in that sentence

like I need a handful of something so

this is a countable noun

related expressions I’m gonna continue

to this part in just a second first I

want to go to uncountable um

many of you are asking about like a lot

and stuff I’m going to talk about large

amounts in just a minute that’s part

three for today other questions I don’t

see yet okay so let’s talk now about

uncountable expressions as I discussed

or as I mentioned with a few and few for

countable nouns we have this same

feeling with a little and little for

uncountable nouns I just say count okay

we need to consider the same like

negative feeling with a little and

little here so again an example sentence

we have a little time we have a little

time this part right here again I’m

using the article a little time we have

a little time in this second one though

we have little time there’s no article

so again this sentence we have little

time sounds more negative it’s like it’s

a bad thing we have little time like but

we need more this sentence we have a

little time sounds like a neutral report

so please keep this in mind this is not

true in every situation but in many

cases this is the feeling you

communicate by including or omitting the

UH all right um

other examples what about a little bit

yes yes you can use a little bit I have

a tiny bit of which is yeah another

option you can use I chose tiny because

I thought you might not know tiny means

very very very very small tiny so and a

bit is like another word for piece a

tiny bit of you can absolutely use a

little bit of as well so a little bit of

time I have a little bit of money and so

on yes you can use those absolutely I

don’t see other questions so onward I’ve

included here then to a small counter

word of a small counter

so counter word if you remember at the

beginning of this lesson I explained

that we use counter words like dollars

or minutes or hours to talk about units

inside uncountable nouns so you can use

sometimes a counter word to talk about

part of and uncountable nouns so for

example like a small piece of something

or a small bit of something so you can

use some counter words to describe a

small like units inside and uncountable

now okay so this is the first part here

I want to go kind of to part two point

five then and then we’ll take one more

break I want to talk about this red box

here some and any I have some and any in

this space because we use some and any

with both countable and uncountable

nouns that means we can use them with

both doesn’t matter whether than that

which type of noun it is so let’s talk

about some first some we use in positive

statements slow so like I have some

markers for example or I have some time

we can use it with countable and

uncountable nouns we also use some in

requests and in offers so a request for

example is like will you please give me

some of something like will you please

give me some money

so we can use it to make a request and

we can also use it to make an offer so

like would you like some something like

would you like some cake

for example that’s an offer we use some

in these cases so positive statements

requests and offers any on the other

hand is used in negative statements

meaning I don’t have any of something or

we don’t need any of something again we

can use this with countable or

uncountable nouns we also use any in

information question so that means that

this isn’t we’re

not making a request and we’re not

making an offer

with any we’re asking for information

for example do we need any something or

do you want any something so this is

these are the key differences between

some and any but we can use them for

both countable and uncountable nouns

all righty okay I don’t see any

questions but if you want to know more

about these I have a video on the

English class 101 youtube channel the

talks about these topics actually all of

this is covered on the channel so we’ll

take one more break and then we’ll go to

the last part of today’s lesson I will

show you a few more things I have not

shown you yet

so in case you missed it last time I

showed you a few of these these are all

free PDFs that you can get from below

the link if you are watching on YouTube

or above the link if you are watching on

Facebook if you’re watching on Instagram

please check YouTube or Facebook these

are free PDFs you can download printout

keep on your phone to practice

vocabulary and expressions so I’ll put

them here so this is another one I don’t

think I showed this earlier about

cooking there are some expressions you

can use in your kitchen on the back this

one is a really good one maybe for

everybody who participates in our online

chats this is the talking online one and

a conversation guide on the back to some

useful vocabulary where it’s here for

those of you who are interested in music

yes this says singing I know but on the

back it’s actually expressions to talk

about music it’s hard to see here I know

but you can check these and choose which

ones you want to download you can find

the link above or below the video

depending on where you are watching o ki

dokie

s Laniakea says couple of for both and

more do you mean for both countable and

uncountable nouns we use a couple of for

countable nouns we don’t use it for

uncountable nouns so I can’t say like a

couple of money I can’t say that I hope

that’s your question okay

Edgard has a good example sentence

Alicia is showing us some PDFs yes some

some is correct there so some also some

is kind of vague like some there’s not a

specific amount with some it’s just kind

of a vaguely small amount not a lot not

a little it’s just some hmm where is the

paper download link on Facebook if

you’re watching on Facebook look at the

link above this video on the main feed

or if you have the video big it should

be above the chat above the chat so

please have a look all righty

let’s go to the last part the last part

of today’s video is about large amounts

large amounts so we talked about small

amounts let’s cover large amounts then

and again countable on top uncountable

at the bottom this big box however I’ve

put here to mean you can use these for

both countable and uncountable nouns so

if you get stuck if you don’t know which

one to use you can choose one of these

alright let’s talk about countable nouns

first a large number of something a

large number of countable nouns like she

has a large number of pets maybe I don’t

know I don’t know what a large number of

pets would be like more than six anyway

a large number of countable nouns so

don’t forget your s sound at the end of

this word many students forget that

another one you can use is several

several so this one like it sounds like

seven I know the beginning of this seven

it doesn’t mean seven exactly but it

means more than a couple or a few more

than some it’s it’s kind of again

another

word like to me it sounds like more than

some but if it’s helpful to you you can

think of it as like seven or eight of

something so if it’s it doesn’t mean

exactly seven but it might be helpful

for you to remember it is like seven ish

or more of something uh next is a huge

number of a huge number of so this is

more than a large number of huge means

very very very very very very big so

huge huge so a huge number of huge is

larger than large you’re just larger

than big so all of these it’s like a

scale so it’s like large may be big

large and big or about the same huge and

then like gigantic these are on the same

level kind of so you can choose the

adjective you want to use here to just

like more specifically describe the

number of some things but this is a key

point number four for countable nouns

we’ll talk about a mount for uncountable

nouns down here so let’s take a look now

at these in the box that we can use to

talk about both countable and

uncountable nouns these are great if you

get stuck we can use a lot of and lots

of for both countable and uncountable

nouns I know many of you do this we can

also use a ton of a ton of so again a

ton refers to a very very large number

of something a very large amount of

something so I could say like oh my gosh

a ton of people are watching on Facebook

oh my gosh just like two does so a ton

means a lot of something we could say a

bunch of or bunches of a bunch if it’s

helpful again another image you can

think of a bunch is a word that we use

when we talk about like flowers

sometimes so if you imagine you gather

up like a group one group of bouquet of

flowers we could call that a bunch of

flowers you can kind of use that as an

image then

• I have a bunch of something so it’s

not like you’re overflowing with like

the thing you’re talking about but you

have a good number so a bunch of or

bunches of bunches of you might hear

that - so bunches becomes plural here

and the last one that you can use for

both is plenty of plenty

okay let’s go to this last point here

then so uncountable noun

related expressions if your noun is

uncountable like time you can say a huge

amount of sorry a large amount of as I

talked about here or a huge amount of

again you can use as I said some other

adjectives in these places - in these

positions in the sentence I mean so this

again as I said when you’re talking

about uncountable nouns use amount so I

can’t say like a large number of time

that’s incorrect

number is used within with countable

nouns number is used with countable

nouns amount is used with uncountable

nouns so I also I cannot say a large

amount of markers for example so please

use number with countable nouns plenty

of time yes uh Marlene says what about

the expression an awful lot yeah yeah

yeah you can use an awful lot with both

I’ll put that here so an awful lot so

it’s like saying a lot again but we use

an awful lot an awful lot when maybe

like there’s some kind of surprise about

the number or about the amount mm so

yeah we have an awful lot of extra time

it’s like maybe something bad happened

or maybe something negative happened

we’re kind of surprised at this

situation could I pronounce plenty again

please

so I said plenty very clearly in

everyday speech we say plenty plenty

it sounds like PL e + NY plenty so I

have plenty of time

hmm other examples I’m looking for your

examples I don’t see any more on YouTube

on Facebook

everybody’s saying hello someone writes

lots of love yes that is a very common

expression lots of love like to end a

message to someone with the expression

lots of love

can I say like I have tons of problems

yes you absolutely you can problem is a

countable noun so you can use all of

these to describe that I have tons of

problems I have so many problems right

now so I’ve just used a very casual one

so many I have so many problems right

now not a good thing but on the other

hand you would use much much with an

uncountable noun like I have so much

time right now so that’s another point

when you’re talking about countable and

uncountable nouns make sure many is used

with countable nouns much is used with

uncountable nouns okay other example

sentences someone says there are plenty

of flowers in the garden yes indeed Hugo

says can I say I have tons of friends

yes you can congratulations you go with

your tons of friends okay someone

Aladdin on YouTube says I I got tons of

questions to ask so not gotta gotta

means got to or have to I’ve got is okay

or I have tons of questions to ask is

also okay

Elton says I need so not it’s me but or

you could say you need or I need a lot

of time to learn a foreign language

is it possible to use the word to says

Omar can you give me an example it’s

kind of an open question what do you

mean please share an example uh gyro

says what about saying several problems

I have several problems grammatically

correct yes dramatically correct but I

would say in that case like you’re

probably in a specific situation like in

a meeting like mmm you’re reviewing a

proposal or something like looking at

something a document you’re like hmm I

have several problems with this so that

means I have a group of problems with

this

so yes grammatically correct totally

fine um what about the expression whole

lot like I have a whole lot of things to

do today yeah

whole lot that’s from mateus on YouTube

a whole lot of things a whole lot of

things to do today yeah we can use that

I feel like we use that with countable

nouns more like in your example a whole

lot of things to do today we can use it

with like uncountable nouns as well I

have a whole lot of time as well that’s

fine a whole lot okay oh I guess I have

to stop look at me gonna try not being

late today okay someone says I have so

much problems is it correct

no I have so many problems so if you’re

not sure ask yourself is my noun problem

countable or uncountable if it’s

countable many I have so many problems

if it’s uncountable much I don’t have

much time or I have so much money okay

uh ah

now all these questions are coming hmm I

didn’t get the difference between a lot

a lot in a bunch these are all the same

thank you very much for the super chat

these are all we can use these all the

same that’s the point here tons of

sounds like more than a lot of and a

bunch of is kind of like a group of some

so you can watch this video back as well

so I hope that that helps you there are

so many questions coming now why are all

the questions coming now why didn’t you

send these questions to me earlier

next week send me your questions earlier

I have to finish so I’ll end today’s

lesson there thank you as always for

joining us this week next week I’m going

to talk about emotions describing

emotions describing feelings so it’s

going to be a lot of like adjectives

emotion related adjectives to talk about

what’s your feeling so please join us

again next week that will be February

13th Wednesday 9 p.m. Eastern Standard

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really really appreciate it so I hope

that that was helpful you can watch this

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videos about all of these topics I will

finish there so thank you very much

enjoy your week have a nice weekend and

I will see you again next time okay