Teacher JacobOn Vague Nouns
Vague nouns: Are they cool? (adapted from bbc.com)
Learning Objective: At the end of the session, the students are expected to be able to use vague nouns (included in this lesson) in a conversation.
The word thing refers to objects which aren't described - we don't know what the objects are, only that they exist!
So in the sentence:
There are a few things I'm not happy about.
we don't know what the speaker is unhappy about.
Bit often refers to a part or section of something.
Both bit and thing can be used if we don't know the English word for something or if we've forgotten it -
I've broken my stapler... I dropped it and the bit which holds the paper in place snapped.
The word stuff refers to more than one object. It is a non-count noun.
There's loads of stuff in the attic - can you have a look and see if any of it's yours?
It can also be used to talk about ideas or words:
All this stuff in his speech about workers' rights... do you think he actually meant any of that?
Quantifiers
Most quantifiers are quite vague. In this programme we looked at how the words one or two can refer to three, four or five things.
I expect the meeting will be quite short. We only have one or two things to discuss.
Other quantifiers include: a few, a couple of, a lot of, plenty of, loads of.
Vagueness and numbers
Some words allow you to give more detail than a quantifier but are still vague.
You can use around and about to give a vague idea of a number. They can be used to give an idea of time or age too.
There's about two hundred people outside.
It must be around three o'clock now.
He's about fifty, fifty-five maybe.
You can use the word odd to give an idea of a number (but not to indicate age or time). This is informal English.
Did you know there are loads of people outside? Must be 200-odd out there.
Slightly more formal, you can use or so in the same way.
There are thirty or so leaflets there. Do you think you could fold them for me?
Note that the phrase more or less is not usually used with numbers. It means 'almost', and we often use it to indicate if something is finished.
I'm more or less done here... I just need to double-check these sums before I print it off.
Please prepare for an exercise!