It took us some time because they did not respond to messages on time.
- “Some” is a determiner that can be used with both countable and uncountable nouns. It is used to refer to an unspecified quantity or number of something.
- “Time” in this context is an uncountable noun referring to the indefinite continued progress of existence and events in the past, present, and future.
When combined, “some time” refers to an unspecified amount of time. In the sentence above, it means that an unspecified amount of time was taken because they did not respond to messages promptly. The exact length of this time is not specified, but it is understood to be longer than expected or desired. This phrase is often used when the exact amount of time is not important to the meaning of the sentence, or when the speaker does not know the exact length of time.
If you have any questions, you know where I am.
- “any questions” is used to refer to an unspecified number of inquiries or doubts. The word “any” is used before a plural noun (in this case, “questions”) to refer to an unlimited number of something.
- “you know where I am”: This is an idiomatic expression that means the speaker is available for contact or conversation. It’s often used to offer help or support.
No man is going to let me drive his car.
“No man” is a way of saying “not a single man” or “not any man”. It’s a strong and emphatic way of saying that there isn’t even one man who would allow the action that follows.
I want to know more details about your plans.
In this case, “more” is used as a determiner to indicate an additional amount or number of the noun “details.”
You have a lot of information in your folder.
- “a lot of” is used to indicate a large number or amount. It can be used with both countable and uncountable nouns.
- “information” is an uncountable noun that refers to facts or data about something.
There’s lots of room in this house.
- “lots of” is an informal way of saying “a large number or amount of”. It’s used before countable or uncountable nouns.
- “room”: In this context, “room” is an uncountable noun referring to space that can be occupied or where something can be done.
Profiling Research
In the English Grammar Profile (EGP), A2 point 13 in DETERMINERS is defined as:
range of quantifying determiners (‘some‘, ‘any’, ‘no’, ‘more’, ‘a lot of‘) with both plural nouns and uncountable nouns.
The EGP examples for point 13 include:
- some water
- any clothes
- no clouds|time
- more work|details|time
- lots of fun
No example of ‘a lot of’ is included in the above. However, the EGP comments help explain:
Note that these determiners can be used with both plural and uncountable nouns, but not singular nouns. Note also that although ‘some’ and ‘a lot of’ are being used at A1 it is only with plural nouns; it is at A2 that they start to be used with with uncountable nouns as well as plural nouns. See note at A1.
Therefore: ‘a lot of’ + uncountable noun’ is A2.
However, it is unclear at what level (there is no entry in the EGP) they can be used with “singular nouns”, for example: “no man” sounds quite advanced. Yet, if we revert to the English Vocabulary Profile for the A1 entry of ‘no’ as a determiner, there is one invented example that matches with singular nouns:
That’s my kind of holiday – no telephone, no computer and no worries.
The Oxford Learner Dictionary also has ‘no’ as a determiner at A1 with singular noun example:
No student is to leave the room.
Point 13 in EGP overlaps with A2 point 18 in the category of NOUNS:
form simple noun phrases by pre-modifying nouns with an increasing range of determiners.
The examples for point 18 contain countable and uncountable nouns and ones with possessive adjectives:
many shops
much fun|money
a lot of museums = A1 example
- All of our classmates | some of my cousins
Note that in the EGP, a limited range of quantifying determiners with plural nouns (‘some’, ‘lots of‘, ‘a lot of’ and numbers) = A1
- some shops
- three rooms
- a lot of friends
- lots of things
In the EGP comments:
‘some’, ‘a lot of’, and ‘lots of’ can be used with uncountable nouns too, but there is not enough evidence of successful use with uncountables at A1.
Here’s an expert example:
We would like to remove any doubt as to the validity of our search.
We search in iWeb for:
more|any|no|some _NN
1 MORE INFORMATION 911327
2 SOME PEOPLE 582076
3 SOME TIME 509036
they did not respond to messages on time.
4 ANY TIME 495787
5 NO WAY 343794 *This sense can be B1 or C1
No way to guard against that kind of thing.
6 NO IDEA 332583
7 MORE TIME 290763
8 NO NEED 277549
9 SOME CASES 274645
10 ANY WAY 252793
11 SOME SORT 238481
12 MORE PEOPLE 233370
13 ANY QUESTIONS 232414
14 SOME POINT 223321
15 SOME KIND 220844 B1
people talk about living in the moment,
like it‘s some kind of a goal.
16 ANY KIND 214531
17 NO PROBLEM 196299 informal
18 NO REASON 189868
19 MORE DETAILS 182880
about your global takeover plans.
20 SOME REASON 177311
A search in the MOVIE corpus for noun collocates of no_ATmostly gives us singular nouns:
1 WAY 21111
2 IDEA 14062
3 PROBLEM 10326
4 TIME 9789
5 MAN 7005
No man is ever going to allow me
to be a navigator on their boat.
6 NEED 6168
7 REASON 6015
8 MONEY 5094
9 CHOICE 4226
10 PLACE 4214
11 USE 3571
12 SHIT 3295
13 THING 3261
14 WONDER 2931
15 SIR 2840
16 RIGHT 2671
17 DEAL 2587
18 TROUBLE 2560
19 SENSE 2556
20 PEOPLE 2255
and I saw no skyscrapers,
no people yelling and arguing,
and there were no funny smells
lots of _NN
1 LOTS OF PEOPLE 45953
2 LOTS OF THINGS 17515
3 LOTS OF FUN 16994
4 LOTS OF TIME 16778
5 LOTS OF MONEY 14696
6 LOTS OF WATER 13040
7 LOTS OF WAYS 8424
But people with something to hide know better,
and there are lots of ways to hide.
8 LOTS OF QUESTIONS 7808
9 LOTS OF ROOM 7285
There’s lots of room in this house
10 LOTS OF OPTIONS 7077
11 LOTS OF LOVE 6453
12 LOTS OF INFORMATION 6324
13 LOTS OF SPACE 5638
14 LOTS OF STUFF 5301
15 LOTS OF WORK 4787
16 LOTS OF OPPORTUNITIES 4378
17 LOTS OF PLACES 4249
18 LOTS OF PICTURES 4037
19 LOTS OF REASONS 4003
20 LOTS OF IDEAS 3841
a lot of _NN
1 A LOT OF PEOPLE 255187
2 A LOT OF TIME 161662
3 A LOT OF MONEY 96711
4 A LOT OF WORK 72749
5 A LOT OF THINGS 66595
6 A LOT OF FUN 62926
7 A LOT OF TIMES 23856
8 A LOT OF INFORMATION 21530
You seem to have a lot of information
9 A LOT OF QUESTIONS 20926
10 A LOT OF SENSE 20657
11 A LOT OF ATTENTION 19982
12 A LOT OF STUFF 19323
13 A LOT OF EFFORT 16580
14 A LOT OF RESEARCH 15681
15 A LOT OF PRESSURE 14200
16 A LOT OF WAYS 14131
17 A LOT OF ENERGY 13504
18 A LOT OF WATER 13350
19 A LOT OF EXPERIENCE 13026
20 A LOT OF TROUBLE 12291
A2 vocabulary:
cases, details, idea, ideas, information, point, reason, reasons, sort, space, way, ways
Here are two C2 examples expressing an amount:
in some measure that night he came to dinner
and the effect he had on Carlotta and the maid.
we all need some measure of unmerited grace.
Some is a determiner that we use before nouns to refer to indefinite or limited quantities. A noun phrase is a group of words headed by a noun with modifiers. For example, in the sentence “Some people like to have money”, some is a determiner and some people is a noun phrase.