Cover of the textbook Outcomes Elementary - Student's Book

The key answer of exercise 10

The key to exercise solutions in chapter 2 - A lot of homework! for the textbook Outcomes Elementary - Student's Book with authors Hugh Dellar and Andrew Walkley from National Geographic Learning

Question

Look at each pair of sentences in the box and circle the difference. In pairs, discuss what things are different when you use an uncountable noun instead of a countable noun.

Answer

  1. I don’t need a dictionary. → I don’t need any help.
  2. There aren’t any cars. → There isn’t any traffic.
  3. There aren’t many cars. → There isn’t much traffic.
  4. Do you have a rubber? → Do you have any paper?
  5. Do you have any tissues? → Do we have any homework?
  6. Do you want some chips? → Do you want some water?

Negative sentences:

  • not a with countable singular noun (dictionary), not any with countable plural or uncountable noun (cars, traffic)
  • not many with countable plural, (cars) or not much with uncountable noun (traffic)

Questions:

  • Do you have + a with countable singular noun (rubber), + any with countable plural or uncountable noun (scissors, paper, homework)
  • Do you want + some with countable plural noun (chips), or uncountable noun (water)