Quantifiers - A2 Grammar Rules and Exercises

Exercises

Countable nouns refer to items that we can count. Examples: apple, student, book, chair, dog

Common quantifiers for countable nouns:

Quantifier	Meaning	Example
a few / a couple of	a small number (positive meaning)	We have a few apples left.
several	more than two, not many	We visited several museums.
many	a large number	She has many friends.
some	an unspecified small number	There are some books on the table.
not many	only a small number	I don’t have many pencils.
a lot of / lots of	a large number	There are lots of tourists here.
how many…?	asking for number	How many chairs do we need?

Uncountable nouns describe things we cannot count separately. They usually do not have a plural form.

Examples: water, rice, money, time, milk, sugar, music, information

We do not use a/an with uncountable nouns.

Quantifier	Meaning	Example
a little	a small amount (positive)	There is a little milk in the fridge.
little	almost none (negative)	We have little time today.
some	a small amount	I need some sugar for the cake.
not much	only a small amount	There isn’t much juice left.
a lot of / lots of	a large amount	She drinks a lot of water.
how much…?	asking about amount	How much rice do we need?

Quantifier	Meaning	Example
no	none / zero amount	We have no homework. / There are no cookies.
any	questions and negatives	Do you have any money?
enough	the right amount	We have enough chairs. / We have enough time.
most	almost all	Most people like coffee. / Most water is clean here.

a few = a small number (positive idea)
We still have a few cookies. (some left)
few = not many (negative idea)
We have few cookies. (almost none)
a little = a small amount (positive)
There is a little juice. (some juice)
little = almost none (negative)
There is little juice. (not enough)

If we talk about drinks or food, uncountable nouns can become countable when we mean a serving or container:

Example: I ordered two coffees. (= two cups of coffee)