LICUNGO UNIVERSITY OF MOZAMBIQUE

Faculty of Education

Portuguese Course

English Work

Topics
Differents ways to tell the time
Countable vs Uncountable nouns
Plural formation of nouns in english

Name: Augusto Manuel José Tapera

Name of Dr
Lino Fernando Nhaliveu

Quelimane
November, 2024
Different ways to tell the time

There are several common ways to tell the time.

1 What time is it? ( Describe the different ways of saying the time)

• Full Hours**: To indicate the exact hour, we can use” It’s” or “are”.

For example:

“It’s na hour” (1:00)

“are four o’clock” (4:00)

• Hours and Minutes: When we talk about hours and minutes, we use “it’s”.

It’s five tem (5:10)

It’s six-twenty (6:20)

• Say the hour first and then the minutes. (Hour + Minutes)

6:25 – It’s six twenty-five

8:05 – It’s eight O-five (the O is said like the letter O)

9:11 – It’s nine eleven

2:34 – It’s two thirty-four

• Say the minutes first and then the hour. (Minutes + PAST / TO + Hour)

For minutes 1-30 we use PAST after the minutes.

11:20 – It’s twenty past eleven

4:18 – It’s eighteen past four

For minutes 31-59 we use TO after the minutes.

2:35 – It’s twenty-five to three

8:51 – It’s nine to nine

2:59 – It’s one to three

When it is 15 minutes past the hour we normally say: (a) quarter past

Examples: 7:15 – It’s (a) quarter past seven.

When it is 15 minutes before the hour we normally say: a quarter to

Example: 12:45 – It’s (a) quarter to one

When it is 30 minutes past the hour we normally say: half past

Example: 3:30 – It’s half past three (but we can also say three-thirty)

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O’ CLOCK

We use o’clock when there are NO minutes.

Examples

10:00 – It’s tem o’clock

5:00 – It’s five o’clock

1:00 – It’s one o’clock

Sometimes it is written as 9 o’clock (the number + o’clock)

12:00 For 12:00 there are four expressions in English. Twelve o’clock midday = noon
midnight

2. Countable vs Uncountable nouns (bring the difference and the examples of each).

It’s important to distinguish between countable and uncountable nouns in English because
their usage is different in regards to both determiners and verbs.

Countable nouns

Some nouns refer to things which, in English, are treated as separate items which can be
counted. These are called countable nouns.

Here are some examples:

A car, three cars

My cousin, my two cousins

A book, a box full of books

A city, several big cities

She has three dogs.

I own a house.
I would like two books please.

Singular and plural

Countable nouns can be singular or plural. They can be used with a/ na and with numbers
and many other determiners (e.g. these, a few):

Examples:

She’s got two sisters and a younger brother.

Most people buy things like cameras and MP3-players online these days.

These shoes look old now.

I’ll take a few magazines with me for the flight.

If you want to ask about the quantity of a countable noun, you ask “How many?” combined
with the plural countable noun.

Exemples

How many beds you sold today?

How many friends do you have?

Quantifiers: We use words like “many,” “a few,” and “several” to quantify countable nouns.

Example: “There are many students in the class.”

Uncountable nouns

In English grammar, some things are seen as a whole or mass. These are called uncountable
nouns, because they cannot be separated or counted.

Some examples of uncountable nouns are:

Ideas and experiences: advice, information, progress, news, luck, fun, work.

Materials and substances: water, rice, cement, gold, milk.

Weather words: weather, thunder, lightning, rain, snow.

Names for groups or collections of things: furniture, equipment, rubbish, luggage.

Other common uncountable nouns include: accommodation, baggage, homework,

knowledge, money, permission, research, traffic, travel.

These nouns are not used with a/na or numbers and are not used in the plural.

Examples :We’re going to get new furniture for the living room.

Some nouns always have plural form but they are uncountable because we cannot use
numbers with them

Example: I bought two pairs of trousers

Other nouns of this type are: shorts, pants, pyjamas, glasses (for the eyes),binoculars,
scissors.

Quantifiers: To quantify uncountable nouns, we use words like “much,” “a little,” and “a lot
of.”

Example: There isn’t much sugar left.

Some words can be countable in some contexts and uncountable in others. For example,
“chicken” can be uncountable when referring to meat (“I want chicken”) and countable when
referring to birds (“I have three chickens”).

COUNTABLE PHRASES FOR UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS

We can sometimes use countable noun phrases to talk about na individual example of the
thing na uncountable noun refers to.

Uncountable Countable

Accommodation A house, a flat, a place to live, a place to

stay

Bread A loaf (of bread), a (bread) roll

Baggage/luggage A suitcase, a bag, a rucksack

 Lightnin a flash of lightnin

Luck a stroke of luck

Money A note, a coin, a sum of money, a euro, a

dollar

Poetry a poem

Rain a shower, a downpour, a storm

Trave A journey, a trip

Work A job, a task

Countable and uncountable nouns with different meanings

Some nouns can be used either countably or uncountably, but with different meanings.

Countable use Uncountable use

We bought a new iron and na ironing People believed that ships made of iron
board would sink

I broke a glass yesterday The table was made of hardened glass

Would you like a chocolate Would you like some chocolate?

Let’s get a paper and see what’s on at the The printer has run out of paper
cinema

Hamlet’ is one of Shakespeare’s most I had work to do so I couldn’t go out

famous works
Uncountable nouns used countably

Sometimes uncountable nouns are used countably, to mean ‘a measure of something’ or ‘a

type or example of something’:

Can I have two teas and one coffee, please? (two cups of tea and one cup of coffee ?)

How many sugars do you want in your tea? (How many spoonfuls/lumps of sugar?)

Abstract nouns

Some abstract nouns can be used uncountably or countably. The uncountable use has a more
general meaning. The countable use has a more particular meaning.

Nouns of this type include: education, experience, hatred, help, knowledge, life, love, sleep,
time, understanding.

Uncountable use Countable use

Good education is the best investment in The first daughter had a very expensive
Mozambicans future. education at a private school in
Mozambique.
(education in general)
(the time one person spent at school)

Love is like a physical pain for some people. I’ve always had a love of poetry, ever since I
was a child.
(love in general/all love)
(a specific liking for something)

They have a quis every week, with questions The job requires a knowledge of statistics
about general knowledge. and basic computing.

(all knowledge/knowledge in general) (a specific type of knowledge)

 Time passes more and more quickly as you We had a great time in Ibiza. We didn’t want
grow older. to come home.

(time in general) (a specific period of time)

3. Plural formation: describeb the different ways of forming the plural of nouns in
english. Include the regural nouns and the irregular nouns.

Regular nouns

In general the plural of a noun is formed by adding -S to the noun.

Singular Plural

Car cars

House houses

Book books

Bird birds

Pencil pencils

When the noun ends in S, SH, CH, X or Z, we add -ES to the noun

Singular Plural

Kiss kisses

Wish wishes

Match matches

Fox foxes
 Quiz quizzes

I have a box in my bedroom.

I have three boxes in my bedroom.

With words that end in Z sometimes we add na extra Z to the plural form of the word (such
as with the plural of quiz).

When the noun ends in a vowel + Y, we add -S to the noun

Singular Plural

Boy boys

Holiday holidays

Key keys

Guy guys

When the noun ends in a consonant + Y, we remove Y and add -IES to the noun.

Singular Plural

Party parties

Lady ladies

Story stories

Nanny nannies

City cities

If the noun ends in F or FE, we remove the F/FE and add -VES to the noun.
 Singular Plural

Life lives

Thief thieves

Wife wives

Leaf leaves

Some exceptions: roof – roofs, cliff – cliffs, chief – chiefs, belief – beliefs, chef – chefs

If the noun ends in a CONSONANT + O, we normally add -ES to the noun.

Singular Plural

Tomato tomatoes

Potato potatoes

Echo echoes

Hero heroes

Some exceptions: piano – pianos, halo – halos, photo – photos.

There are some nouns in English that are the same in the singular and the plural.

Singular Plural

Fish fish

Sheep sheep

Deer deer

Moose moose
 Aircraft aircraft

I can see a sheep in the field.

I can see tem sheep in the field

Irregular noun

Irregular nouns are nouns that do not follow a standard pattern of pluralization that regular
nouns follow. Regular nouns are nouns that become plural if na -s is added to them. For
example, a shirt becomes shirts, or a pen becomes pens. Instead of -s however, -es must be
added to singular nouns that end in -ch, -sh, -s, -x, or -z. For example, vases, watches, and
bushes are the plural forms of a vase, watch, and bush.

Nouns that do not follow the -s /-es pattern are irregular nouns; this is in line with the
irregular plural nouns definition.

The following table shows regular and irregular plural nouns examples.

Regular Nouns Regular Nouns Irregular Nouns Irregular Nouns

Singular Plural Singular Plural

Hand hands man men

Finger fingers foot feet

Plant plants child children

Door doors woman women

Coach coaches die dice

Bus buses sheep sheep

Irregular Plural Patterns

Most irregular nouns are not by any means random. They do follow a pattern — it just
happens to be a different pattern from the one that regular nouns follow. This fact, and the
fact that they follow several different patterns, is what sets them apart from regular nouns.
Let’s take a look at some of these patterns now.

F/-Fe Nouns: One irregular plural pattern is the changing of ‘’f’’ to ‘’v’’ at the end of the
noun. If a noun ends in ‘’-fe,’’ the ‘’f’’ changes to ‘’v,’’ and an ‘’s’’ is added. For example,
‘’life’’ changes to ‘’lives,’’ and ‘’knife’’ becomes ‘’knives.’’

Similarly, if a noun ends in ‘’-f,’’ the ‘’f’’ becomes a ‘’v,’’ and ‘’es’’ is added. Some
examples of these are ‘’half,’’ which changes to ‘’halves,’’ and ‘’wolf,’’ which changes to
‘’wolves.’’ As you can see, with both the ‘’f’’ and ‘’fe’’ ending, the result is that the plural
form ends in ‘’ves.’’

“Us” Nouns: Another irregular plural pattern is seen in words ending in ‘’-us.’’ In this case,
the ‘’us’’ changes to become na ‘’i.’’ You can see this in these nouns:

‘’Cactus’’ becomes ‘’cacti.’’

‘’Nucleus’’ becomes ‘’nuclei.’’

“Is” and –“On” Nouns: Another type of irregular noun that follows a pattern is nouns that
end with ‘’-is.’’ In these cases, the ‘’is’’ becomes na ‘’es’’ in the plural form. By this pattern,
‘’thesis’’ becomes ‘’theses,’’ and ‘’crisis’’ becomes ‘’crises.’’

Finally, we can see a pattern in nouns that end with ‘’-on.’’ In the plural form, the ‘’on’’
changes to na ‘’a.’’ That is how we get words like ‘’criteria’’ (from ‘’criterion’’) and
‘’phenomena’’ (from ‘’phenomenon’’).

Patternless Plurals: Not all irregular plural nouns follow a pattern this way. There are
numerous examples of ones that have completely irregular plurals to which a rule cannot be
assigned. For example, some change the central vowel. We see this in the ‘’man’’ to ‘’men’’
change as well as in ‘’foot’’ to ‘’feet.’’
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Bibliographic Reference

https://www.vocabulary.cl/Basic/Telling_Time.htm

https://www.grammar.cl/Notes/Plural_Nouns.htm

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/nouns-countable-and-uncountable

https://study.com/academy/lesson/irregular-plural-nouns-definition-example.html