Name: How To Use Stuff and Things | Like A Native Speaker
Uploaded: 2021-06-18T03:01:20.000Z
Duration: 3 min 31 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Hi, everyone, and welcome to Like A Native Speaker.

Today's lesson, we're gonna talk about "stuff" and "things".

So, a few weeks ago I talked a lot about "stuff" and "things" in my general extenders video, but today, I wanna talk about "stuff" and "things" as nouns by themselves, not at the end of sentences.

So "stuff" and "things" are nouns that are used when we want to talk about an undetermined amount of something, either we don't know how many there are, or there's just too many to count.

You'll see this most commonly in, "I have a lot of things to do," or "I have so much stuff to do." So "things" or "stuff" could really be anything. They could be objects, or actions, or even people depending on your sentence.

Let's dive into the differences between "stuff" and "things."

The most obvious difference is that "things" are countable. "One thing, two things, many things." "So many things."

But "stuff" is uncountable. "Some stuff, a lot of stuff, too much stuff."

So "things" are countable, "stuff" is uncountable, but we still use them much the same. You just have to be careful with those quantifiers, much, many, a lot of, not enough, things like that.

So what is the difference in meaning or usage?

Well, the main thing is that "stuff" usually refers to a wide variety of different kinds of things.

So for example, I'm moving pretty soon, and right now I have "too much stuff."

Because I'm talking so generally, using "things" would be a bit strange. It's kind of unnatural in that way.

So in this case, "things" usually refers to a narrower or maybe more specific group.

The benefit of "thing" is that we can use it in singular, and we use it so often when we don't know or can't remember what the object or action is.

Hey, um... can you pass me the thing? The.... the thing, you know, the thing, the, the... no, no, the thing with the buttons.

That, no, the other, the black thing, the other black thing with the buttons.

The... you use.... for the... the... yeah! No wait, Yes, yes! The... this thing! What's it called?

So to quickly review all the stuff we talked about: "stuff" is an uncountable noun; "things" are, of course, a countable noun.

"Stuff" is usually used when there's a wide variety of objects or actions, and "things" are usually a bit more narrow.

But "thing," of course, can also be used in the singular. Usually if we don't know what it's called, or in my case, can't remember.

How about in your language? Do you have a word or expression that serves the same kind of function as "stuff" or "things"?

What is it? Do you use it in a similar way?

Let me know! Tell me in the comments, make sure to subscribe, and I'll see you next time!