Count nouns have two forms: singular and plural.

Singular count nouns refer to one person or thing:

a book; a teacher; a wish; an idea
Plural count nouns refer to more than one person or thing:
books; teachers; wishes; ideas
Singular count nouns
Singular count nouns cannot be used alone. They must have a determiner:
the book; that English teacher; a wish; my latest idea
Plural forms
We usually add s to make a plural noun:
book > books; school > schools; friend > friends
We add -es to nouns ending in ss; -ch; -s; -sh; -x
class > classes; watch > watches; gas > gases; wish > wishes; box > boxes
When a noun ends in a consonant and -y we make the plural in -ies...
lady > ladies; country > countries; party > parties
but if a noun ends in a vowel and -y we simply add -s:
boy > boys; day > days; play > plays
Some common nouns have irregular plurals:
Man > men; woman > women; child > children; foot > feet;
person > people
Plural count nouns do not have a determiner when they refer to people or things as a group:
Computers are very expensive.
Do you sell old books?
Some nouns in English are uncount nouns.
We do not use uncount nouns in the plural and we do not use them with the indefinite article, a/an.
We ate a lot of foods > We ate a lot of food
We bought some new furnitures > We bought some new furniture
Thats a useful information > Thats useful information
We can use some quantifiers with uncount nouns:

He gave me some useful advice.

They gave us a lot of information.
Uncount nouns often refer to:

Substances: food; water; wine; salt; bread; iron

Human feelings or qualities: anger; cruelty; happiness; honesty; pride;

Activities: help; sleep; travel; work

Abstract ideas: beauty; death; fun; life

Common uncount nouns

There are some common nouns in English, like accommodation, which are uncount nouns even though they
have plurals in other languages:
advice

baggage

equipment

furniture

homework

information

knowledge

luggage

machinery

money

news

traffic

Let me give you some advice.

How much luggage have you got?
If we want to make these things countable, we use expressions like:
a piece of...

pieces of...

a bit of...

bits of...

an item of...

Let me give you a piece of advice.

Thats a useful piece of equipment.
We bought a few bits of furniture for the new apartment.
She had six separate items of luggage.
but we do not use accommodation, money and traffic in this way.

items of...

World Day
Against
Child
Labour
12 June 2014 -- Today marks the adoption of the landmark International Labour Organization
(ILO) Convention No. 182, which addresses the need for action to tackle the worst forms of
child labour. While celebrating progress made since the Convention's adoption in 1999, the
World Day highlights continuing challenges, such as the many children involved in domestic
work.
The ILO estimates that some 218 million children are trapped in child labour. Many of these
children work long hours, often in dangerous conditions. Child labour is closely associated
with poverty and denies children their right to education. Many poor families are unable to
afford school fees or other school costs. The family may depend on the contribution that a
working child makes to the household's income, and place more importance on work than on
education. When a family has to make a choice between sending either a boy or girl to school,
it is often the girl who loses out.
This year, the World Day Against Child Labour draws attention to the role of social protection
in keeping children out of child labour and removing them from it. In 2013, at the III Global
Conference on Child Labour in Brasilia, the international community adopted the Brasilia
Declaration, which stresses the need for decent work for adults, free, compulsory and quality
education for all children, and social protection for all. Echoing those priorities, World Day
2014 calls for: action to introduce, improve and extend social protection, in line with the ILO
Recommendation No. 202 on social protection floors; national social security systems that are
sensitive to children's needs and help fight child labour; social
protection that reaches out to especially vulnerable groups of
children

One of the worlds most serious problems is the (1) ____ of child labour. June 12 is the World Day Against
Child Labour. All around the world people will take (2) ____ in activities to raise awareness of the damage
child labour does to children, families and societies. The day is also one on which the world (3) ____ the
human rights of children. The United Nations (4) ____ out in its Millennium Development Goals a number
of targets to help prevent child labour. By 2015, it hopes all children complete their primary education and
that there is (5) ____ in education. To do this, governments must take steps to reduce poverty and provide
enough jobs for adults. These are the two (6) ____ reasons why we have child labour today.

There are over 250 million children worldwide who (7) ____ in some kind of labour. Eighty percent of
these, around 200 million, work in dangerous and (8) ____ conditions. A senior UNICEF spokesperson on
child protection said: Child labour is a widespread phenomenon (9) ____ over the worldWhen that work
stands between a child and his or her chances for education, or affects his or her health, then we consider
(10) ____ a violation of the rights of children. There are many terrible forms of child labour. These include
working in dangerous mines deep below the ground and being a slave in the (11) ____ industry. Many
children are sold by their parents to raise money. Many more are beaten and abused by (12) ____ employers,
or sold by child traffickers.
Put the correct words from this table into the article.
1.

(a)

use

(b)

used

(c)

using

(d)

useful

2.

(a)

party

(b)

apart

(c)

part

(d)

a part

3.

(a)

promotion

(b)

promoting

(c)

promoted

(d)

promotes

4.

(a)

let

(b)

set

(c)

get

(d)

met

5.

(a)

equality

(b)

equals

(c)

equally

(d)

equal

6.

(a)

mainly

(b)

main

(c)

maintain

(d)

mainline

7.

(a)

works

(b)

workers

(c)

work

(d)

working

8.

(a)

hazardous

(b)

hazards

(c)

hazard

(d)

hazel

9.

(a)

every

(b)

whole

(c)

all

(d)

around

10.

(a)

these

(b)

them

(c)

then

(d)

this

11.

(a)

sexy

(b)

sexual

(c)

sexes

(d)

sex

12.

(a)

cruelty

(b)

cruel

(c)

cruelly

(d)

cruellest