Talking about quantities

Hello, boys and girls! My name is Bobby.

And my name is Tobby. This is our friend Mobby.

Welcome to our lesson.

Today we have a guest.

It’s our friend Kenny.

Hi, everyone!

Kenny wants to tell you one unpleasant story.

It happened to him yesterday.

Well… It was a sunny day and my mum asked me to go to the supermarket. She told me to buy some products.

When I went to the store, I started talking to the saleswoman.

Hello. Can you give me one sugar and two beans, please?

Excuse me, but I don’t really understand what you mean!

Um… I asked you to give me one sugar and two beans!

I’m sorry, but I still don’t understand!

I need one sugar!

Do you mean one kilo of sugar?

Yes, I do. And I need two beans!

Do you mean two tins of beans?

Oh, yes! That’s right.

After that the saleswoman gave me everything I asked for. I said, “thank you” and was about to go home when suddenly I noticed a girl. It was Kate. It’s the girl I really like!

She was laughing at me. I felt ashamed and ran away.

Guys, it was so embarrassing!

Oh, come on, Kenny! Don’t worry about that!

I can’t! I really like Kate, but now she thinks that I’m a silly boy! I don’t know what to do! What if I meet her at the store again?

All right! First of all, come down!

We can see that you don’t know how to talk about quantities, but it’s not a problem!

Yeah, this rule is very easy!

And we will explain it to you!

So today in the lesson we will:

talk about quantities;

learn new words;

And

put the knowledge into practice.

First of all, you need to know that there are many different ways to talk about quantity. The simplest way to talk about quantity is to use numbers.

Look at the examples:

Megan has four apples.

Or

Tyler bought two pineapples.

But pay attention! When we talk about solid products or liquids, we cannot use numbers. To talk about them, we need to use the following phrases:

A packet of something.

Пачка чего-либо.

For example:

A packet of biscuits.

Пачка печенья.

A jar of something.

Банка чего-либо.

For example:

A jar of strawberry jam.

Банка клубничного варенья.

A bar of something.

Плитка чего-либо.

For example:

A bar of chocolate.

Плитка шоколада.

A carton of something.

Пакет чего-либо.

For example:

A carton of milk.

Пакет молока.

A kilo of something.

Килограмм чего-либо.

For example:

A kilo of apples.

Килограмм яблок.

A bottle of something.

Бутылка чего-либо.

For example:

A bottle of water.

Бутылка воды.

A loaf of something.

Буханка чего-либо.

For example:

A loaf of rye bread.

Буханка ржаного хлеба.

And

A tin of something.

Консервная банка чего-либо.

For example:

A tin of beans.

Консервная банка фасоли.

If you want to say that you have or need a large amount of something, but you don't know the exact quantity, you can use such words as “a lot of”, “much”' or “many”. These words are translated as “много”.

We use “much” with uncountable nouns. 

Uncountable nouns - неисчисляемые существительные.

They are called so, because we cannot count them.

Look at the examples:

There is much salt in the soup.

Or

There is much orange juice on the floor.

(Salt and orange juice are uncountable nouns, that’s why we used the word “much” in these two sentences).

The word “many” is used with countable nouns.

Countable nouns - исчисляемые существительные.

They are called so, because we can count them.

Look at the examples:

There are many people in the park.

Or

There are many eggs in the fridge.

(In these two sentences we used the word “many”, because people and eggs are countable nouns).

And we use “a lot of” with countable and uncountable nouns. So if you don’t know what to choose “many” or “much”, you can use “a lot of”.

Look at the examples:

There are a lot of girls in this room.

(Here we used a lot of with countable noun).

Or

There is a lot of sugar in my tea.

(Here we used a lot of with uncountable noun).

The only difference between a lot of, much and many is that it’s better to use “a lot of” in positive sentences and “much” or “many” in negative and interrogative sentences.

Let’s look at the examples:

There are a lot of tomatoes in this salad.

There aren’t many trees in the garden.

Or

Is there much money in your wallet?

Guys, we’ve told you how to talk about quantities.

We’ve also learnt new words.

Now we would like to check your knowledge.

Match the words from the list with the correct pictures.

Let’s check the right answers.

On the 1^st picture we can see a bar of chocolate.

On the 2^nd – a bottle of Coke.

On the following picture we can see a kilo of potatoes.

On the 4^th – a packet of tea.

On the 5^th – a carton of juice.

On the following picture we can see a tin of peas.

On the 7^th – a jar of cherry jam.

And on the last picture we can see a loaf of homemade bread.

Well done, boys and girls!

Now it won’t be a problem for you to talk about quantities.

That’s all for today, our dear friends.

See you soon.