B2 Uncountable and plural nouns

B2 GRAMMAR: UNCOUNTABLE AND PLURAL NOUNS

The Lost Property Of Strangers

PICTURE

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"The luggage is never really the luggage."

Uncountable nouns and a piece of · countable / uncountable pairs · plural-only nouns · collective nouns

Reading

Speaking

A · LEAD-IN

What's in the bag?

Discuss in pairs.

1. Airlines lose around twenty million bags a year - most of them only temporarily.

2. What's in your suitcase that would be genuinely irreplaceable?

3. And what would you secretly not mind losing?

PICTURE

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B · BEFORE YOU READ

A library of interrupted lives

Maryam Haddad has run an airport's lost luggage office for nine years. Her staff are part detectives, part archivists, part therapists.

READ ONCE AND ANSWER

PICTURE

1. What kinds of things end up in the lost luggage office?

2. What does Maryam say the job has taught her?

3. First: guess the three most common items in the unclaimed cage.

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B · READING

The lost property of strangers

"Chaos is upstairs. Down here we make progress, one bag at a time."

The lost luggage office at the airport's eastern end is a library of interrupted lives. Maryam Haddad has run it for nine years, and her staff - all six of them - are part detectives, part archivists, part therapists.

"People think the work is boring," she says, unlocking a cage of unclaimed suitcases. "The work is many things. Boring is not among them." The traffic through her office is relentless: on a bad weather day, when flights are cancelled in waves, up to four hundred bags. "The news always says 'chaos at the airport'. Chaos is upstairs. Down here we make progress, one bag at a time."

B · READING (continued)

The lost property of strangers

Some items require delicacy. A wedding dress, collected eventually by a woman who asked Maryam not to comment on it, "so we didn't". An urn, twice. Somebody's entire belongings in two taped boxes - a life mid-move, briefly homeless. And once, memorably, a suitcase containing nothing but scissors. "Forty-one pairs. The police were interested; the explanation was a hairdressing academy. Everyone was slightly disappointed, I think, including the police, who are usually right about these things and enjoy saying so."

The contents follow patterns. Clothes, obviously - mountains of clothes, which are donated after three months if unclaimed. Equipment of every profession: a dentist's drill, diving gear, a folding harp. Paperwork that makes her wince - passports, contracts, a will. "My advice is always the same: documents in the hand luggage. Always. People pack their whole lives in the hold and keep three magazines and some chewing gum with them."

The strangest part of the job, she says, is what it does to your sense of stuff. "I used to love shopping. Now I look at furniture, jewellery, all these expensive things people buy, and I see the cage: three hundred bags, and inside them, everything the owners swore they couldn't live without. They lived. Almost everyone lives. In nine years, do you know what people cry about at my counter? Not the laptop. The photographs. A child's drawing. One man cried about a hotel pen - his late wife's. The luggage is never really the luggage."

Her team's proudest statistic: ninety-six per cent of bags reunited with their owners within a week. The remaining four per cent wait in the cage, patient as libraries, for someone to remember what their life used to contain.

C · COMPREHENSION

True, false, or not mentioned?

1. Maryam has a staff of six.

2. Unclaimed clothes are destroyed after three months.

3. She advises passengers to keep documents in the hold.

4. The suitcase of scissors belonged to a hairdressing academy.

5. The police found the scissors explanation disappointing.

6. People most often cry over lost electronics.

D · GRAMMAR FOCUS

Nouns that refuse to be counted

a) The traffic through her office is relentless.

b) The news always says "chaos at the airport".

c) Down here we make progress, one bag at a time.

d) My advice is always the same: documents in the hand luggage.

1. Traffic, news, progress, advice - countable or uncountable? What do you notice about the verb with news, despite the -s?

2. Can you say a news or an advice? How do we count one item of these: a ______ of advice / news / information?

3. Add to the always-uncountable list from your own knowledge: accommodation, behaviour, equipment, furniture, information, luggage, research, rubbish, scenery, weather, work... Which of these do learners most often pluralise wrongly?

D · GRAMMAR FOCUS

Plural-only nouns and groups of people

a) mountains of clothes, which are donated... / Somebody's entire belongings... / Forty-one pairs (of scissors).

b) her staff - all six of them - are part detectives, part archivists...

c) the police, who are usually right about these things and enjoy saying so.

1. In (a), clothes, belongings, scissors, trousers are plural-only. What verb do they take? Can they take a / an? How do we count the two-part ones: a ______ of scissors?

2. In (b) and (c), staff and police refer to groups. Which one takes a plural verb always?

3. Which group nouns (family, team, government, crew) can take singular or plural - and what changes in the speaker's mind when they choose the plural?

D · MEANING PAIRS

Match each form to its meaning. Which member of each pair is countable?

With these nouns, adding a / an changes the meaning - not just the number.

1. a glass

2. glass

3. a paper

4. paper

5. an iron

6. a light

7. a space

8. a business

a) the hard transparent material in a window

b) something you drink from

c) a newspaper (or an academic article)

d) the material you write on

e) an electrical appliance for clothes

f) a lamp

g) a gap, or a parking place

h) a company

D · THE RULES

Complete the rules

Complete the rules with one word in each gap.

• Uncountable nouns: ______ plural form, ______ verb, no a / an; use a piece of (or a bit of) for one item.

• Plural-only nouns take a ______ verb; two-part items use a ______ of.

• Collective nouns: singular verb for the ______, plural verb for the ______.

• Police is always ______.

CAREFUL

News, information, advice, research, furniture, luggage and equipment are the classic traps: some good news, a piece of advice, two items of luggage - never informations or an advice.

E · CONTROLLED PRACTICE

Right or wrong? Correct the wrong sentences.

1. The sceneries in the north are absolutely stunning.

2. Can you give me an advice about insurance?

3. Her belongings was sent on the next flight.

4. The police is investigating the scissors suitcase.

5. I need to buy a new trousers for the wedding.

6. We've made a lot of progress this term.

7. The hotel staff are all wonderful - every one of them remembered our names.

8. I read an interesting research about lost luggage yesterday.

9. Could I have a glass of water and a paper to write on?

10. My family are arguing about the holiday again - all five of them, separately, by text.

F · FREER PRACTICE

The cage

In pairs: you run the lost-property office. Invent the three strangest unclaimed items.

• Write the one-line log entry for each, using at least one uncountable noun, one plural-only noun and one collective noun correctly: The equipment was... · The police were called... · A pair of... · The owner's belongings include...

• Then role-play one reunion at the counter: the owner describes the contents from memory, the officer checks the log.

• The class awards Most Plausible Mystery.

PICTURE

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TEACHER'S REFERENCE · HIDE OR DELETE BEFORE CLASS

Answer key

B GIST Clothes, professional equipment, documents and deeply personal items (a wedding dress, urns, a whole life in boxes, 41 pairs of scissors). The lesson: possessions matter less than people think - what is truly mourned is the irreplaceable (photographs, a child's drawing, a late wife's pen).

C 1 True. 2 False - donated. 3 False - in the hand luggage. 4 True. 5 True ("everyone was slightly disappointed... including the police"). 6 False - photographs and sentimental items.

D UNCOUNTABLE 1 All uncountable; news takes a singular verb despite the -s. 2 No - never a news / an advice; use a piece of advice / news / information. 3 Commonly wrong plurals: informations, advices, furnitures, luggages, researches, sceneries and works meaning jobs.

D PLURAL AND GROUPS 4 A plural verb; no a / an; a pair of scissors / trousers. 5 Police - always plural. 6 Family, team, staff, government, crew take a singular verb for the unit and a plural verb when the speaker is thinking of the individual members.

D MEANING PAIRS a glass = b (something you drink from) · glass = a (the material) · a paper = c (a newspaper) · paper = d (the material) · an iron = e (the appliance) · a light = f (a lamp) · a space = g (a gap or parking place) · a business = h (a company). The form with a / an is the countable one in every pair.

RULES no · singular · plural · pair · unit · individuals · plural.

E 1 Wrong - The scenery in the north is stunning. · 2 Wrong - some advice / a piece of advice. · 3 Wrong - belongings were. · 4 Wrong - The police are investigating. · 5 Wrong - some new trousers / a new pair of trousers. · 6 Right. · 7 Right. · 8 Wrong - some interesting research / an interesting piece of research. · 9 Right (a glass = vessel; a paper here means a sheet, so strictly a piece of paper - accept "wrong" with that correction, it's a good discussion point). · 10 Right.