Reference · module 2
Numbers and things
Everything this module explains, on one page.
One to twenty
Count, and say how old you are.
- one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. The first ten are their own words and have to be learned as they are.
- Then eleven and twelve break the pattern, and from thirteen the rule appears: three plus teen, four plus teen, and so on to nineteen.
- Age uses be, not have: I am twenty. Saying I have twenty years is the mistake almost every European learner makes first.
The mistake you are about to make
I have twenty years.
I'm twenty.
Many languages have their years rather than being them. English is the age: I am twenty, and "years old" is optional on the end.
a and an
Put the right article in front of any single thing.
- English marks one of something with a: a book, a car, a house. It is not optional the way it is in Russian.
- Before a vowel sound it becomes an: an apple, an hour, an idea. Two vowels running together are hard to say, and an is what fixes that.
- The rule is about SOUND, not spelling. an hour, because the h is silent. a university, because it starts with a y sound.
The mistake you are about to make
I have car.
I have a car.
If your language has no articles, leaving one out feels like nothing is missing — the sentence is perfectly clear. To an English ear it sounds unfinished.
One book, two books
Make any noun plural, including the ones that refuse.
- Most nouns just take an s: book, books. car, cars. day, days. That covers the great majority of the language.
- After s, ch, sh and x it becomes es, because the sound needs a syllable: buses, watches, dishes, boxes.
- A short list is irregular and worth learning by heart: man and men, woman and women, child and children, foot and feet, person and people.
The mistake you are about to make
There are many peoples here.
There are many people here.
People is already a plural — the plural of person. Peoples does exist and means nations, which is almost never what was meant.
this, that, these, those
Point at something near you and something further away.
- this is near, that is further away. this book in my hand, that book on the shelf. Distance is the only difference.
- Their plurals are these and those, and they follow the same split: these books here, those books over there.
- What's this? is the most useful question a beginner has. Two words, and it gets you any word you are missing.
The mistake you are about to make
This is far from here.
That's far from here.
One word covers both distances in many languages, with a gesture doing the rest. English splits them: this is near you, that is not.