Gateway to Grammar: Some and one to speak like a native English-speaker

When someone asks if you want something, the conversation can sound like this for non-native English-speakers:

Pig 1: “Do you want another beer?”

Pig 2: “Yeah, I’ll have another beer.”

There is nothing grammatically wrong with this, but it does not sound natural. They sound a little bit like pig robots. To help our pigs sound a bit more natural, we can replace the countable noun “beer” with “one”:

Pig 1: “Do you want another beer?”

Pig 2: “Yeah, I’ll have another one.”

Countable nouns use “one”, or “ones”:

• Beer – I’ll have one

• Biscuits – I’ll have two of the chocolate chip ones

Uncountable nouns use “some”:

• Mud – I’ll have some please

• Sugar – I’ll add some for you

Tip: When you are talking about countable nouns in the plural (more than 1) you must be talking about a specific group (like “the chocolate chip ones”) otherwise we use some:

• Biscuits non-specific – I’ll have some, thank you

• Biscuits specific – I’ll have 2 of the chocolate chip ones.

Using “one”, “ones”, and “some”, we stop repeating the same words the other person said, and this sounds much more natural and native. Now I need to go because I have talked too much about biscuits and I have to search the kitchen cupboards…