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The email that couldn't go 500 miles: quantifiers like some, a few and no in tickets

Quantifiers such as a few, most and none turn a vague bug report into an exact ticket in this B1 English for IT lesson plan.

Grammar
Quantifiers with countable and uncountable nouns (a few errors, a little traffic), some, any, no and none of, and every with a singular noun: Every request fails.
Topic
Clear bug tickets at Kestrel Cloud, a fictional payments startup, with words such as vague, impact, delivery failure and narrow down.
Activities
Trey Harris's 500-mile email story, a ticket draft in a team email, a call with a merchant, self-checking drills, a chat and role cards, then a ticket to write and a call to record.

What's inside

  1. Chapter 1Warm-up: Lost in the Inbox

    • PictureUnlock
    • Spin the wheel and answerSpin the wheelUnlock
    • Study the words for clear ticketsVocabularyTry it
    • Look at the pictures and choose the wordChoose by pictureUnlock

  2. Chapter 2The Story: The 500-Mile Email

    • Read the story and find the patternArticleUnlock
    • Choose the correct answer about the storyQuizUnlock

  3. Chapter 3At Work: Payout Emails Don't Work

    • Read Iryna's email to FatimaReal-life documentTry it
    • True or false? Check the emailTrue or falseUnlock
    • Choose the clearest ticket titleQuizUnlock

  4. Chapter 4Listen: A Call with Felix

    • Listen to Iryna's call with FelixListeningTry it
    • Transcript, for the teacherUnlock
    • True or false? Check the callTrue or falseUnlock

  5. Chapter 5Grammar: A Few, Every or None?

    • Study the scheme: quantifiers in ticketsGrammar schemeTry it
    • Sort the words into the correct columns: countable or uncountable?Sort into columnsUnlock
    • Fill in the gaps: rewrite each sentence with the word in parenthesesFill in the gapsTry it
    • Drag the words into the gaps: make each vague line exactDrag and dropUnlock
    • Choose the correct option: Iryna's ticket after the callChoose the optionUnlock

  6. Chapter 6Speak Up: Talk Through the Ticket

    • Choose the right replies to FatimaChatTry it
    • Open a box: take a role card and talk through a ticketOpen the boxUnlock

  7. Chapter 7Homework: Your Clear Ticket

    • Read your phrase bankReal-life documentUnlock
    • Do you remember? Choose the correct answerQuizUnlock
    • Is the sentence correct? True or falseTrue or falseUnlock
    • Unscramble the words from the lessonAnagramUnlock
    • Write a clear ticket from a vague reportWriting, checked by the teacherUnlock
    • Record a call: talk through your ticketSpeaking, checked by the teacherUnlock

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Vocabulary

12 words and phrases from the lesson, each with a picture and audio in edio.

+9 more with pictures and audio in the lessonMore words

  • affect
  • pattern
  • narrow down
  • forward
  • mail server
  • payout email
  • delivery failure
  • spam folder
  • restore service

Grammar: quantifiers in bug tickets

A vague report says some people and sometimes; a useful ticket says how many. Working from a bakery's missing payout emails, learners swap vague words for exact quantifiers, pick the right one for countable and uncountable nouns, and match every, all and none of to their nouns and verbs.

Quantifiers: say exactly how many

Countable nouns (a user, two errors) and uncountable nouns (data, traffic, information, feedback) take different words.

How many or how much?

Countable nouns such as users and errors take a few, many and fewer; uncountable ones such as data and traffic take a little, much and less. Some, no, most and all fit both kinds. Without the a, few users and little feedback mean not enough.

MeaningCountable: users, errorsUncountable: data, traffic
zerono users, none of the usersno data, none of the data
a small number or amounta few errorsa little traffic
not enough (negative)few users, not many userslittle feedback, not much feedback
a large number or amounta lot of requests, many requestsa lot of traffic; much traffic in ? and −
less than beforefewer usersless traffic
an unknown number or amountsome users (+), any users (? and −)some data (+), any data (? and −)
the biggest partmost users, most of the usersmost data, most of the data
100%all users, all of the usersall data, all of the data

Every, each, all, none of and no

Every and each take a singular noun and verb (Every request fails.), and all takes the plural (All requests fail.). None of needs the, our or my after it: None of the airport managers get the emails. No goes straight before the noun: No money is affected.

WordPatternExample
everyevery + singular noun + singular verbEvery request fails.
eacheach + singular noun (one by one)Each manager gets an email.
allall + plural noun + plural verbAll requests fail.
none ofnone of the / our / my + plural or uncountable nounNone of the airport managers get the emails.
nono + noun (= not any)No money is affected. We have no data.

Exact words for a ticket

Lines from the ticket and the call show the pattern, from A few of Hollow Oak's 12 shop managers get no payout emails to Do they get any emails at all? Never write some people when you can count them: 3 of 200 users.

From the lesson

  • A few of Hollow Oak's 12 shop managers get no payout emails.
  • The other nine managers get every email.
  • None of the three airport managers get payout emails.
  • Every email to those three addresses has a delivery failure.
  • The old program didn't understand some of the settings.
  • Do they get any emails at all?

Be exact in a ticket

Replace vague words with exact ones: not “Some people can't log in” but “A few users on Android can't log in” or “3 of 200 users can't log in”. In writing, use fewer with countable nouns: fewer users, fewer errors.

Data, traffic, feedback: no a, no -s

Uncountable nouns never take a, an or a plural -s: some information, a piece of feedback, not an information or feedbacks. Their verb stays singular, too: The data is missing. The traffic is low at night.

  • No a / an and no -s: some information, a piece of feedback (not “an information”, not “feedbacks”)
  • A singular verb: The data is missing. The traffic is low at night.

Typical mistakes

  • We lost a few data.

    We lost a little data.

    data is uncountable: a little, not a few

  • Every users get the email.

    Every user gets the email. / All users get the email.

    every + singular; all + plural

  • None users can log in.

    None of the users can log in. / No users can log in.

    none of the + plural noun; no + noun

  • There are much errors in the log.

    There are a lot of errors in the log. / There are many errors in the log.

    much goes with uncountable nouns

More lessons on this grammar: Quantifiers lessons and exercises

Try the quantifiers exercises

Try them yourself: these are the same exercises your students do in edio.

More exercises

What's in the lesson

  • 12 auto-checked exercises
  • 3 games
  • 2 teacher-checked tasks
  • 2 real-life documents
  • 1 article
  • 1 grammar scheme
  • 1 set of word cards
  • 1 audio clip
  • 1 picture
  • 1 transcript

The main objectives of this lesson are to:

  • say exactly how many: a few of the 12 shop managers, none of the users, most of the shops
  • pick the quantifier that fits the noun: a few errors but a little traffic, fewer users but less traffic
  • use every with a singular noun and all with a plural one: Every request fails. All requests fail.
  • rewrite a vague bug report as a clear ticket, then check the facts on a call: Do they get any emails at all?

Lesson 9 closes Bugs and tickets, unit 3 of English for IT B1 · Inside the Team, which trains learners to describe a problem so a colleague can reproduce it and to write a clear ticket. Quantifiers join the past simple and past continuous of lesson 7 and the imperatives and zero conditional of lesson 8, and they take a few, a little and a lot of from A2.1 lesson 12 into work English. A ticket that says some users leaves the team guessing, while 3 of 12 managers tells it where to look.

A wheel of questions about bug reports starts the warm-up, and twelve words for clear tickets follow, from pattern to restore service, with pictures and audio. The story retells Trey Harris's 500-mile email, a tale he says he changed in places. At work, students read Iryna's email to Fatima with a first ticket draft and pick the clearest ticket titles; then an AI-voiced call with the merchant turns vague words into exact numbers. The scheme comes with four drills that check themselves, and in the speaking chapter a chat with Fatima leads to role cards for talking a ticket through.

Homework starts with a phrase bank for clear tickets and three exercises that check themselves: two reviews of the unit's grammar and an anagram. Students then write a clear ticket from a vague report and record the call about it, the two tasks the teacher reviews.

Grammar:
quantifiers · countable and uncountable nouns
Topic:
bug reports · tickets · email

Teaching tips

  • Collect vague lines from the group's own work, such as It's slow sometimes or Some customers complain, and have pairs rewrite each with an exact quantifier or a number: 3 of 200 users.
  • Stop before the call: Iryna's email lists three questions for the merchant. Learners guess the answers, then listen for the quantifiers he actually uses.
  • Draw a line on the board from none to all, mark a few and most on it, then read out figures such as 2 of 50 users for learners to put into words.
  • One-to-one, play the vague merchant yourself with a role card, answering only some and sometimes until the learner asks for numbers; then swap, so they give a clear report too.

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The whole course: English for IT B1 · Inside the Team

24 lessons at B1 for people who build, test or run software, in American English. Learners follow Iryna, a junior developer, through her first year at Kestrel Cloud, a fictional payments startup: standups, tickets, code review, chats across time zones and job interviews. Each lesson is built around a true story from software history.See the course

  1. Unit 1 Hello, team

    roles, stacks and first days: the present simple, the present perfect with for and since, question forms

    1. Lesson 1How big is a two-pizza team?Present simple for jobs and responsibilities
    2. Lesson 2Your first "Hello, World"Present perfect with for and since
    3. Lesson 3Write your personal READMEQuestion forms for getting to know colleagues

  2. Unit 2 The daily standup

    updates and blockers: the present simple and continuous, just, already and yet, have to and need to

    1. Lesson 4Why is it called a scrum?Present simple vs continuous and state verbs
    2. Lesson 5Done, not done yetPast simple, present perfect and going to for updates
    3. Lesson 6Help, I'm blocked!Have to, need to, don't have to and can't

  3. Unit 3 Bugs and tickets

    clear bug reports: the past continuous, imperatives and the zero conditional, quantifiers

    1. Lesson 7The first actual bugPast simple and past continuous for bug stories
    2. Lesson 8Steps to reproduceImperatives and the zero conditional for bug reports
    3. Lesson 9 · you're hereThe email that couldn't go 500 milesQuantifiers in bug tickets

  4. Unit 4 Code review

    kind, useful comments: -ed and -ing adjectives, modals for suggestions, the first conditional

    1. Lesson 10What's a nit?-ed and -ing adjectives in review comments
    2. Lesson 11Could we maybe…?Modals for suggestions in code review
    3. Lesson 12Your first pull requestThe first conditional and unless in code review

  5. Unit 5 How it works

    explaining systems step by step: time clauses, the passive, relative clauses

    1. Lesson 13What happens when you type a URL?Time clauses with as soon as, until and once
    2. Lesson 14How is a barcode read?The present and past simple passive
    3. Lesson 15Draw it, then say itDefining relative clauses

  6. Unit 6 Remote and async

    chat, email and time zones: polite requests, future forms, the present perfect continuous

    1. Lesson 16Just say what you needPolite requests and indirect questions
    2. Lesson 17Your 9 a.m. is my noonFuture forms for plans across time zones
    3. Lesson 18Write it downPresent perfect continuous for status updates

  7. Unit 7 Users and clients

    user stories and plain explanations: verb + to or -ing, reported speech, comparisons

    1. Lesson 19As a user, I want…Verb + to or verb + -ing
    2. Lesson 20"The client said it was broken"Reported speech for client calls
    3. Lesson 21Explain it in ten hundred wordsComparisons for plain explanations

  8. Unit 8 Your next job

    resumes and interviews: used to, the past perfect, the second conditional

    1. Lesson 22A resume that shows resultsUsed to for your career path
    2. Lesson 23Tell me about a time when…The past perfect for STAR stories
    3. Lesson 24What would you do if…?The second conditional for interviews

Questions about this lesson

What are quantifiers?
Quantifiers are words that say how many or how much: some, any, no, a few, a little, many, much, most, all and every. They come before a noun (a few errors, most users) or before of and a word such as the (none of the users). Some go only with countable nouns, like many; others only with uncountable ones, like much.
How do you use quantifiers in English?
First check whether the noun is countable or uncountable, then choose the word for the amount: a few errors, many requests, fewer users, but a little traffic, much data, less traffic. Some, no, most and all fit both. For a known group, add of the: most of the shops. The email that couldn't go 500 miles, a B1 English for IT lesson on edio.ai, uses them to make a vague bug report exact.
What are some examples of quantifiers?
Common quantifiers include some, any, none of, a few and every, and they're easiest to learn in whole sentences: A few of our 12 managers get no emails. None of the airport managers get payout emails. Every email to those addresses has a delivery failure. Do they get any emails at all? The old program didn't understand some of the settings.
When do you use some, any and no?
Use some in positive sentences, any in questions and negatives, and no for not any: Some users reported the bug. Do they get any emails at all? There isn't any data in the export means There is no data in the export. Never pair no with a negative verb: We don't have no data is wrong. A gap-fill in the B1 lesson The email that couldn't go 500 miles on edio.ai rewrites that export sentence.
What's the difference between few and a few?
A few means a small number; few means not enough. A few errors is neutral: there are some. Few users read the release notes is a complaint: almost nobody does. A little and little split the same way with uncountable nouns, as in a little traffic and little feedback. In conversation, not many and not much often take the place of few and little.
Is it "every user gets" or "every users get"?
It's every user gets, with a singular noun and verb. Every looks at a group one by one: Every request fails, never Every requests fail. For the plural, use all: All requests fail. Each works like every: Each manager gets an email. The chat in the B1 English for IT lesson The email that couldn't go 500 miles on edio.ai sets every emails as a trap twice.
What's the difference between no and none?
No goes before a noun; none stands without one or takes of the: No users can log in. None of the users can log in. Do they get any emails? No, none. So none users and none money are wrong. With none of the and a plural noun, both verb forms are correct: None of the managers get the emails, or more formally, None of the managers gets the emails.
Is it "fewer users" or "less users"?
In writing, it's fewer users, because users is countable. Fewer goes with plural nouns (fewer errors, fewer crashes than last week); less goes with uncountable ones (less traffic, less data). Less users turns up in casual speech, but a ticket or a status report should keep the rule. On edio.ai, a gap-fill in the B1 lesson The email that couldn't go 500 miles turns 40 merchants, then 25, into fewer merchants.
How do you write a clear ticket title?
A clear ticket title says what fails, where and since when, in one line: No payout emails for 3 airport shop managers for two weeks, Login fails on Android after the update. Vague words such as some people, sometimes and ASAP give the team nothing to check, so Payout emails don't work. Please fix ASAP! fails as a title. An exact number, or none of or a few of, shows the impact.
How do you describe the impact of a bug in a ticket?
A ticket's impact line says who is affected, how many, and what still works: One merchant so far. No money is affected: the payouts arrive as normal. Give exact figures when you have them (3 of 12 managers, 5 of 300 users) and the next step: We'll prioritize it this week. Iryna's email to support in The email that couldn't go 500 miles, a B1 lesson on edio.ai, has an impact line of this kind.
How do you practice quantifiers with a team of developers?
Rewrite real vague reports into exact ones, since every some people invites the question How many? Collect lines such as Some customers can't pay, have pairs ask for the numbers, then write A few of our 40 beta merchants can't pay or None of the iPhone users are affected. Finish with a short call in which one person checks the facts: Is it all of them or only some?
Are there interactive exercises for quantifiers?
Yes: quantifier gap-fills and chats that mark every answer show at once whether the word fits its noun. Four parts of The email that couldn't go 500 miles, a B1 English for IT lesson on edio.ai, can be tried here with no account: Iryna's email with a ticket draft, her call with the bakery owner, a gap-fill with every, none of, few or fewer, and a chat with Fatima. The other exercises are locked.
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