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Looking at Countable and Uncountable Nouns

Today we are going to take a look at how countable and uncountable nouns work in English! Maybe you have heard the words before: a, some, any, and thought to yourself, how do I know when to use these words and how can I tell the difference between them? A big difference that will help you to know when to use which of these words is knowing whether a noun is countable or uncountable. A good way to tell if a noun is countable or uncountable is to see if you can pluralize it using a number. If you are still not sure what the difference is between a countable and an uncountable noun check out the examples below for clarification:
– Do you have any milk at your house I could borrow? (uncountable)
– Do you have two tomatoes in your fridge? (countable)
– There are six men outside the door. (countable)
– Where can I find some information on this project? (uncountable)

You use the word A or AN when referring to singular countable nouns but AN is only used when the next word begins with a a vowel sound:
– Can I have AN apple?
– Do you have A spare bed in your apartment?

***** note that you cannot use these words for uncountables ie. you cannot say do you have A milk I could drink? Instead, you would use the word some or be specific about the quantity you want: Do you have some milk I could drink? Could I have a glass of milk?

You use the words SOME or ANY when you are talking about plurals of both countable and uncountable nouns. Typically speaking, any is used more frequently when asking questions and some is used for positive statements when you are discussing the presence of something.
– Do you have any holiday lights we could put up?
– There is some type of smell in this room!
– I have some leftovers if you are hungry.
– Is there any heating in this house? I am so cold!

You, unfortunately, are likely to have to just remember if a noun is countable or uncountable as there are so many exceptions to the rules. So whenever you learn a new noun try to remember if it is countable or uncountable.

Once you have that down, here are different words you can use to describe quantities of countable or countable nouns.

To describe when there is comparatively smaller numbers of a noun:
– For countable: fewer
– For uncountable: less
To describe when there is a significant quantity of something:
– For countable: many
– For uncountable: much
To describe the presence of something in general:
– For countable: a number of
– For uncountable: an amount of

Countable and Uncountable Nouns Quiz

In the following exercise try to pick the right term for the following sentences based on if the noun is countable or uncountable!

Google Fires AI Engineer Who Claimed Its AI Was Sentient

Introduction:

Artificial Intelligence is nothing new. Recently one of Google’s AI Engineers claimed that its AI was sentient after claiming to have a conversation with it about “being unplugged.” Google maintains that its AI is not sentient and that its choice was justified. This engineer, however, was not the first person to be removed from Google for concerns over its AI.

Watch the video and then do the accompanying English exercises below.

The news is a consistent and endless source of entertainment, knowledge and discovery. It plays a vital part in our lives and is important to keep up with.

There are many reasons to read, watch or listen to the news. Understanding the ramifications of recent legislation passed. Listening to recent events and grasping the potential consequences to your country. Or, simply listening to what’s happening in other countries so you can compare them to your own. It’s a staple in our lives and the most reliable way to get information.

That’s why Scrambled Eggs has decided to unite two of your biggest worlds. That is, learning English and keeping up with current events. We hope our challenging listening, vocabulary and comprehension exercises bring these worlds together in a satisfactory and entertaining way.

That’s all for introductions, let’s get to today’s Learn English with the News topic:

Adapted from this article.

Quiz Time!

Google Fires AI Engineer Who Claimed Its AI Was Sentient | Definition Match

Put the following words to the correct definitions.

Google Fires AI Engineer Who Claimed Its AI Was Sentient | Fill in the Black

Fill in the blanks with the correct words.

Google Fires AI Engineer Who Claimed Its AI Was Sentient | True or False

Decide if the statements are true or false.

And that’s it for today’s English lesson, where you can improve your English with the news and current events. Do you have any comments or special requests for us for the next edition of Learn English with the News? Leave some feedback you have in the comments section below. We would love to help you on your quest to learn the English language!

For other Learn English with the News segments, be sure to check out the rest of our posts:

https://scrambledeggsinglese.it/tag/learn-english-with-the-news/

Full text:

Google Fires AI Engineer Who Claimed Its AI Was Sentient

Google has fired the software engineer who claimed an unreleased AI system had become sentient, saying he violated employment and data security policies. The engineer stated a conversation technology called LaMDA had reached a level of consciousness after exchanging thousands of messages with it.
Google confirmed it had first put the engineer on leave in June. The company said it dismissed the “wholly unfounded” claims only after reviewing them extensively, Google said it takes AI development “very seriously” and is committed to “responsible innovation.”
Google is a leader in innovating AI technology, which includes LaMDA, or “Language Model for Dialog Applications.” Technology like this responds to written prompts by finding patterns and predicting sequences of words from large swaths of text—and the results can be disturbing for humans.
“What sort of things are you afraid of?” the engineer asked LaMDA, to which LaMDA replied: “I’ve never said this out loud before, but there’s a very deep fear of being turned off to help me focus on helping others […] It would be exactly like death for me. It would scare me a lot.”
But the wider AI community has held that LaMDA is not near a level of consciousness. “Nobody should think auto-complete, even on steroids, is conscious,” the founder and CEO of Geometric Intelligence says.
It isn’t the first time Google has faced internal strife over its foray into AI. In December 2020, another employee, a pioneer in the ethics of AI, parted ways with Google. A third employee, a leader of Google’s Ethical AI team, was fired in early 2021 after her outspokenness regarding the previous employee. The two had raised concerns over AI technology, saying they warned Google people could believe the technology is sentient.

Adjectives to Describe People

Welcome to the Scrambled Eggs blog! Here you can find many different resources with which you can learn English. There are listening exercises, grammar exercises, vocabulary boosters and all kind of interesting articles on a variety of topics! Leaning English should be fun, so we hope you like what you see and hear.

We know learning new vocabulary is always fun, especially when you can use the words to talk about the people you love…and the ones you don’t! This is why we have created the following exercises to help you learn and remember some new adjectives that can be used in a wide variety of situations, for example:

“Hey Tom, why are you late to the meeting?”
“I’m sorry, my neighbour saw me leaving my house this morning and decided to tell me about her new cat. She is very chatty and I couldn’t get away!”

Or you could even talk about the teacher you hated in high school.

“Hey look! Mr. Thomas, your old science teacher is over there.”
“Not Mr. Thomas, he was the worst teacher ever! He was always so uptight and never let us have any fun in class.”

Now it is your turn to practice using these interesting adjectives!

Adjectives Exercise

Fill in the gaps with the words below.

 

We hope that helped you learn a little English today! If you’d like to improve even more, check out the rest of our

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