Episode 22 - Is Time Countable or Uncountable in English? I'll try and help 🤯

The question from my student was: do we need an article 'a' in the sentence 'too much drinking in too short a time'? Good question! The Problem Although we use 'time' as a noun often in English, it is tricky. Sometimes 'time' is countable, sometimes it's uncountable. Sometimes it needs a definite article, sometimes it needs an indefinite article and sometimes no article at all. And even with article use, it often isn't clear that it's following the rules of 'who knows what we're talking about' that we use for other article use. Normal Article Rules Definite articles (the) - things that are known to the writer/speaker and reader/speaker Indefinite articles (a/an) - things that are not known to both Easy Example 'Have you got any time?' When we don't know or care how much time someone can give us we can ask it like this. We don't need any articles in this sentence. However, if we have a specific amount of time in mind we are more likely to use that amount of time in our sentence: 'Have you got five minutes?' Categories of Time (as a noun) *Note: these are my categories that I have created in an effort to try and make this easier to understand. If they don't work for you or you have a better system, please let me know in the comments so we can share with other learners. A kind of time The nature of time as a resource Time for something or doing something in time A Kind of Time 'That's a long time' - article + adjective + noun 'In too short a time' - adjective + article + noun - this is a common construction and can also be used with 'too long a time'. 'It's been a busy time' - article + adjective + noun The Nature of Time as a Resource 'I do that all the time' - adjective + article + noun 'Oh dear, look at the time!' - verb + article + noun 'Where does the time go?' - verb + article + noun In this one the first example is our exception, because 'all' is an adjective introducing the whole idea of 'time', our noun. However, we're not talking about whether the time is long, short, busy or happy, we're talking about how much of it we have, so it fits in this category and the article is 'the'. Time for Something 'In time, you'll know more' - preposition + time 'The time is now' - article + time '(There's) no time like the present' - determiner + noun In this case, the second example is our exception, but it still fits here. In these examples we're talking about doing something 'in time', now or in the future, rather than the kind of time (1) or how much time (2). Conclusion Time is REALLY confusing!! Don't feel angry if you're struggling with this. This was definitely one of the hardest episodes for me to make and I'm still not sure I've got all the grammar right! I hope it's useful though.