071 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 She never wears hat)
• Be careful of the dog. (not Be careful of dog)
• What a beautiful day!
• I've got a headache.

 

 

   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.
Tom's father is a doctor.	Most of my friends are students.
Are you a good driver?	Are they good students?
Jane is a really nice person.	Jane's parents are really nice people.
What a lovely dress!	What awful shoes!

 

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

jack has a long nose. (not the long nose)

jack has blue eyes. (not the blue eyes)

 

Remember to use a/an when you 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)

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.

 

 

 

※ optimism  vs.  pessimism

 

(어원 정리)

opt : choose  (ex.) option, adopt

opt : seen  (ex.) optic, optical

optim : best  (ex.) optimism, optimal, optimize

 

(참고)

optimal = optimum : the best possible (최선의, 최상의)