Page 154 - English Grammar in Use

Unit
71 Countable nouns with a/an and some

A Countable nouns can be singular or plural:
a dog a child the evening this party an umbrella
dogs some children the evenings these parties two umbrellas

Before singular countable nouns you can use a/an:
Bye! Have a nice evening.
Do you need an umbrella?
You cannot use singular countable nouns alone (without a/the/my etc.):
She never wears a hat. (not wears hat)
Be careful of the dog.
What a beautiful day!
Did you hurt your leg?

B We use a/an … to say what kind of thing something is, or what kind of person somebody is:
That’s a nice table.
In the plural we use the noun alone (not some …):
Those are nice chairs. (not some nice chairs)
Compare singular and plural:

A dog is an animal. Dogs are animals.
I’m an optimist. We’re optimists.
My father is a doctor. My parents are both doctors.
Jane is a really nice person. Jane and Ben are really nice people.
What a lovely dress! What awful shoes!

We say that somebody has a long nose / a nice face / blue eyes / long fingers etc. :

Jack has a long nose. Jack has blue eyes.
(not the long nose) (not the blue eyes)

We use a/an when we say what somebody’s job is:
Sandra is a nurse. (not Sandra is nurse)
Would you like to be an English teacher?

C You can use some with plural countable nouns. We use some in two ways.
(1) some = a number (of) / a few (of) / a pair (of):
I’ve seen some good movies recently. (not I’ve seen good movies)
Some friends of mine are coming to stay at the weekend.
I need some new sunglasses. (= a new pair of sunglasses)
Often you can say the same thing with or without some. For example:
I need (some) new clothes.
The room was empty apart from a table and (some) chairs.
Do not use some when you are talking about things in general (see Unit 75):
I love bananas. (not some bananas)
My aunt is a writer. She writes books. (not some books)
(2) some = some but not all:
Some children learn very quickly. (but not all children)
Tomorrow there will be rain in some places, but most of the country will be dry.

142 Countable and uncountable ➜ Units 69–70 a/an and the ➜ Unit 72 some and any ➜ Unit 85