Business English- Setting Up a New Office- Countable & Uncountable Roleplay

Setting up an office countable uncountable roleplay discussion

You need to set up a totally new branch of your company. The office that you have chosen is totally empty, so hold an internal meeting to decide what you will buy to put in it, and how much/ how many of those things. Start from the very beginning of the meeting (greetings, small talk, etc) and continue right until saying goodbye at the end.

Possible amounts/ numbers to talk about a couple (of)                                                a dozen                                          a few/ a little a huge number/ amount (of)       a lot (of)/ lots (of)                          a/ an half a dozen                                                no                                                    not many/ not much one or two                                                   quite a lot (of)                  some

• Bathroom supplies – (rolls of) toilet paper, (bottles of) toilet cleaner/ toilet bleach, (bars of/ bottles of) hand soap, hand towels, (packets of) paper towels
• Cash/ Money – coins, bills/ notes, change, petty cash
• Computer hardware – printers, servers, monitors, laptops, tablets, headsets, projectors
• Crockery – plates, bowls, mugs, glasses
• Cutlery – spoons, forks, (disposable) chopsticks, bottle openers, corkscrews
• Decoration – pot plants, posters, pictures
• Electronics – CD players, mp3 player docks, digital voice recorders, calculators, copy machines/ photocopiers
• Emergency equipment/ Safety equipment – (box of) first aid, fire extinguishers, Post It notes, smoke detectors
• Fixtures and fittings – hooks, noticeboards, bins/ wastepaper baskets, coat racks, bookshelves, cubicles, umbrella stands, whiteboards, curtains, blinds, sockets/ electrical outlets, partitions
• Food and drink – (cartons of) milk, (bottles of) mineral water, (sachets of) sugar, (sachet of) sweetener, (jar of/ sachet of) creamer, vending machines, drinks machines
• Furniture – desks, cupboards, lockers, sofas, (swivel) chairs, armchairs, filing cabinets, safes, drawers
• Kitchen supplies – washing up brushes, bottle brushes, (bottles of) washing up liquid, (rolls of) cling film/ wrap, tea towels
• Lighting – desk lamps, fluorescent strips, LED bulbs, flashlights/ torches
• Software – apps, operating systems
• Stationery – (reams of/ boxes of/ sheets of) (A4/ A3) photocopy paper, (bottles of) Tippex/ Whiteout/ correction fluid, ballpoint pens/ biros, toner, erasers, paper clips, thumbtacks/ drawing pins, (rolls of) Sellotape/ Scotch tape, automatic pencils/ mechanical pencils, hole punches, rulers, staplers, staples, pairs of scissors, guillotines, ring binders, date stamps, ink pads, (permanent/ whiteboard) markers, rubber bands, glue sticks, envelopes
• Telecommunications equipment – phones, mobile phones, answer machines, intercoms, mobile phone chargers, fax machines
• White goods – fridges/ cool boxes/ refrigerators, water coolers, kettles

Compare the number/ amount of one thing which you chose with the rest of the class, then give examples of things you chose not to buy and why.

Ask about any words above which you don’t fully understand.

Without looking above, add “some” and “+s” to any of the words below which can take “-s” (because they’re countable) and just “some” to the others (because they’re uncountable).

app

automatic pencil/ mechanical pencil

ballpoint pen/ biro

bin/ wastepaper basket

calculator

cash/ money

change

(disposable) chopstick

cling film/ wrap

copy machine/ photocopier

corkscrew

crockery

cutlery

desk lamp

envelope

equipment

filing cabinet

first aid

furniture

hand soap

hardware

hole punch

intercom

laptop

lighting

milk

mineral water

paper clip

Post It note

rubber band

Sellotape/ Scotch tape

socket/ electrical outlet

software

stapler

stationery

sugar

Tippex/ Whiteout/ correction fluid

toilet cleaner/ toilet bleach

vending machine

washing up liquid

Hint 1: There should be the same number of each kind/ Hint 2: General categories, liquids and powders are often uncountable

Add words such as “boxes of…” to the front of all the others (the ones without +s) to make them countable. Then check your answers with the first worksheet.

Put the “possible amounts/ numbers to talk about” words above into order of size in the spaces given below, e.g. “some paper” in the middle of the right-hand column. Note that some amounts/ numbers can go in both columns.

	+ countable (+ mug/ mugs etc)	+ uncountable (+ milk etc)
big                                             small

 

Can you add any more similar expressions?