I want, I have, and I need

I have too little. I want some more. I need a lot


I want, I have, and I need are among the first words a new speaker of English learns because they are so useful in dealing with day-to-day situations. Using these words when you write English is a little more complicated. Examples



TO HAVE: I have a new car. My brother has a new motorcycle. My sister has a bicycle. Many people have cars. Last year I had a Ford. Next year I will have a Buick. We have had many cars during my life

TO WANT: I want a new car. My brother wants a new motorcycle. My sister wants a bicycle. Many people want new cars. Last year I wanted a Dodge. Next year I will want a Cadillac. We have wanted a new car for a long time

TO NEED: I need a new car. My brother thinks he needs a new motorcycle. My sister needs a new bicycle. Many people need jobs to pay for their cars. Last year I needed a new car. Next year I will not need a new car. We have needed many things

There are many kinds of things that people want or have or need. Some of them can be counted, like shoes or cars or brothers. Other things cannot be counted, like air or hope or beer. The difference is important when you write English

Words you can use with things that can be counted: a, an, the, this, that, these, those, one, two, three etc., many, several, few

Words used with things that cannot be counted: some, much, little, any, none, a lot of, plenty of

Often, the difficult task is deciding which things can be counted and which things cannot be counted. You can count apples, fingers, dogs, dollars. You cannot count air, smoke, water. But what about sand? Sure, you can count sand grain by grain, but what you are counting is grains, not sand. What about beer? You can count kegs of beer, or bottles of beer, but you cannot count just beer. The same is true of coffee, dirt, gravel, snow. You can count particles of the substance (grains, flakes, pebbles, stones), or containers of the substance ( cups, buckets, truckfuls, shovels full) , but you cannot count the substance itself. Money is a good example. Most people would say that you can count money, but think about it. What are you really counting? dollars, quarters, pesos, lira, rubles, sacks of, rolls of but not money itself



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Countable	Not Countable
1 pig, 2 dollars, 3 cups of coffee, 4 spiders, 5 buckets of tar, 6 ladies, 7 cubic liters of helium, 8 square feet of carpet, 9 policemen, 10 pennies, many people, a few good men, several rabbits, a bear, an ostrich, the bucket, this car, these cars, that truck, those trucks	some freedom, no air, a lot of cash, a little hope, much dirt, a bunch of trouble, no sense, a little sand, some ammunition

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The word Cattle is a special case. The word itself stands for more than one animal, but you do not count cattle - you count head of cattle, or you count cows or steers or calves. You can have 20 head of cattle, some cattle, a bunch of cattle or 20 steers, but you cannot have 20 cattle