Some water or two bottles?

Use an English amount or a meaningful unit; no Mandarin classifier answers.

Read the cards, see the English task and listen to the narration or examples. Pause to think or say the words aloud. Captions include the spoken answers; turn them off for the listening challenge. Examples use General American English, synthesized with the Andrew voice.

General American English. Spoken examples are synthesized with Microsoft Azure Speech, the Andrew voice. Captions include the answers; leave them off for the listening challenge. About our audio.

Full lesson text and spoken examples · English captions

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Full lesson text and spoken examples

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  1. Amounts and units (0s–7s)
    Count a chair; describe an amount of water.
    Spoken example: A countable sense can name one item. An uncountable sense can name an amount..
  2. Read the context (7s–14s)
    How much water? How many bottles?
    Spoken example: Read what is being counted. Ask how much water, but how many bottles..
  3. Count the unit (14s–22s)
    two bottles of water
    Spoken example: In two bottles of water, bottles is plural. Water names what the bottles contain..
  4. Check the explanation (22s–30s)
    Information and advice are normally uncountable in these senses.
    Spoken example: Read the explanation. Some information is natural; two informations is not the target form..
  5. Try another sense (30s–38s)
    a coffee can mean one served cup
    Spoken example: A word can change countability with its sense. A coffee can mean a served cup..
  6. Your next step (38s–45s)
    Choose a quantity phrase, then explain what is being counted.
    Spoken example: Try the quantity practice. Explain the unit in one answer before moving on..

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