Food and drink

You can count apples. One apple, two apples. You cannot count water.

Words like water, bread, rice, milk, cheese and meat are uncountable. They take no a and they have no plural.

• I drank water. (not a water)
• I ate bread. (not a bread)

To count them, English puts a word in front:

• a glass of water
• a bottle of wine
• a cup of tea
• a slice of bread
• a piece of cheese

Now you can count the glasses, bottles and cups instead.

In a cafe the rule bends

If you order in a cafe, people say "two coffees, please" and "three beers". This is normal and correct in speech. Everyone understands you mean two cups of coffee.

So the rule is real, but it relaxes when the container is obvious.

fish and fish

Fish is the same word in the singular and the plural. One fish, two fish.

You may see fishes, but it is rare and means different kinds of fish.

hungry and thirsty

Remember the pattern from the feelings session: English uses be, not have.

• I am hungry.
• I am thirsty.

Never I have hunger.

taste

Taste is a verb and a noun.

As a verb it works two ways. "I tasted the soup" means you tried it. "The soup tastes good" means the soup has a flavour. In the second sentence the soup is doing nothing at all.

Verbs like this are called linking verbs. Look, smell, sound and feel all work the same way, and they take an adjective after them, not an adverb. "It tastes good", not tastes well.