Easy English Grammar: Countable and Uncountable Nouns

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Nouns

Countable and Uncountable Nouns


Countable Nouns

Countable nouns refer to things we can count. For example, one book, four books, seventeen books, and so on. Countable nouns have singular and plural forms. For singular, they must use determiners (a, an, and the). Meanwhile, for plural, they could use numbers and other determiners (e.g., the, these, some, many, several, few, and so on. For example, 

  • I have two older brothers and a little sister. 
  • Most people spend their weekend by going to the mall and buy several things, or just do window shopping.

Some nouns only have a plural form, but we cannot put numbers before them. They are considered as ‘countable plural nouns’. For example, belongings, clothes, goods, likes or dislikes, savings, stairs, thanks, and so on. 

Uncountable Nouns

Similar to the same presentation of other sources, they usually separate the explanation of uncountable nouns with countable nouns. It is because there more aspects that we need to consider when discussing about uncountable nouns. 

First, uncountable nouns refer to things we see as a whole or mass. They are not normally used in a singular form, with indefinite article (a, an), nor they have a plural form. That’s why they are followed by a singular verb. But actually, we can still put singular and plural meaning for uncountable nouns with a partitive noun with of (e.g., a piece of advice, two boxes of milk, etc). If the uncountable nouns have plural meaning, they use plural verbs. 

 Some examples of uncountable nouns are:

  1. Ideas and experiences: work, fun, progress, advice, news, information, luck, happiness, despair, leisure, etc.·        
  2. Materials and substances: glass, iron, gold, cement, water, milk, juice, rice, sugar, oxygen, etc.
  3. Weather words: weather, rain, snow, wind, lighting, thunder, etc.
  4. Names for groups or collection of things: furniture, equipment, rubbish, luggage, clothing, etc.
  5. Other common uncountable: accommodation, knowledge, homework, research, money, evidence, behaviour, etc.
  6. Nouns that look plural but actually uncountable: the name of academic subjects (e.g., politics, maths, etc.); the physical activities (e.g., gymnastics, aerobics, etc); and the diseases (e.g., measles and mumps)

Second, as what I have told you before, some uncountable nouns can be changed into countable nouns with the use of a partitive noun with of, for example:

  • We're going to get new furniture for our living room.
  • We're going to get a very expensive piece of furniture for our living room.

As you might already know from the previous information, we cannot put uncountable nouns in a singular form. So, you cannot make expressions like this:

    NOT We're going to get a new furniture for our living room.

A partitive noun is used when we need to talk about a part of a mass noun or when we need to count the quantity of something.

  1. Measurements and quantities with mass nouns for example, (a/an/two/three/etc.) slice(s) of cheese, spoonful(s) of sugar, piece(s) of advice, loaf/loaves of bread, ear(s) of corn, glass(es) of water, sheet(s) of cupboard, etc.
  2. A collection of countable nouns (i.e., many collective nouns can be used as partitive nouns.) for example, a flock of sheep, a small herd of dairy cows, a crowd of football supporters, a couple of cats, etc.

Third, some uncountable nouns can be actually used with both uncountable and countable meanings, but they possess different meanings. You can pay attention to the differences from the table below. 


Table 1: Different meanings between countable and uncountable nouns

Fourth, you can try to change uncountable nouns into countable noun phrases. These are common expressions of uncountable and countable nouns you can use if you want to refer to the same thing. 

Table 2: Countable noun phrases you can use instead of uncountable expressions

For example,

  • Finding a place to live is difficult if you’re a student and you’ve got no money, or
  • Finding accommodation is difficult if you’re a student and you’ve got no money.
  • NOT Finding an accommodation is difficult if you’re a student and you’ve got no money.

Fifth, some nouns only have a plural form, even when we are talking about one item and we cannot put numbers before them. If you want to refer to a single item or more you need to use a partitive noun (e.g., a pair of jeans, two pairs of trousers, etc.). In its plural forms (e.g., trousers, etc.), we refer them as types of things in general.

The examples of this uncountable nouns include categories of:

  1. Tools and instruments: glasses (for the eyes), sunglasses, binocular, scissors, headphones, tweezer, etc.
  2. Clothing: jeans, trousers, pants, shorts, pyjamas, tights, clothes, knickers, etc. 

Example sentences can be shown below:

  • His trousers are corduroy, his shirt a pale blue button-down.
  • I bought two pairs of trousers.
  • NOT I bought two trousers. 

In the sixth concept of uncountable nouns, sometimes uncountable nouns are used countable, to mean ‘a measure of something’ or ‘a type or example of something’.

For example,

  • Why is he so obsessed with frozen foods? (It means types of food)
  • Can I have two teas and one coffee, please? (It means two cups of tea and one cup of coffee) 

The seventh concept tells you that abstract nouns are considered as uncountable nouns. The countable use has a more general meaning. The countable use has a more specific meaning. The differences can be seen in the table below.

Table 3: The differences in meaning between uncountable and countable nouns

In the eighth concept, the -ing form of verbs, usually called as gerund or verbal nouns, can also act as nouns, as a subject, the complement of the verb be and as an object after certain verbs. And verbal nouns or gerunds can be used in all the places that a noun can be used.

For example,

  • Singing together was a natural outcome of that.
  • His greatest pleasure is working.
  • Brian was told to stop smoking. 

The verbal noun normally functions as uncountable nouns because we cannot put numbers before them as above. However, there are some uses of the verbal noun that can be preceded by an indefinite or definite article, adjectives, and possessive. They can also be used in the plural.

For example,

  • He gave a reading from his latest volume of poetry.
  • Her marvellous singing won Helen the scholarship.
  • The takings were down this week in the shop. 

Finally, some nouns that are countable in other languages are used only as uncountable in English such as, information, advice, accommodation, help, homework, etc.

As you learn English, you will find various kinds of nouns and their uses. For example, you will wander how to form the plural of foreign nouns in English (e.g., an axis – two axes, a thesaurus – several thesauruses, or a formula – some formulas/formulae). A good learner will help you to find the correct form and use of both uncountable and countable nouns.

"You should check a learner dictionary if you're in doubt. A good learner dictionary will help you to make the plural of any nouns. If the dictionary doesn't show, then you can assume that it's regular. And you can check the previous rule about regular plural."



You can also watch this lesson in my YouTube channel. The link is provided below: 


I have provided the Presentation slides. They are presented in both English and Indonesian languages. You can download the presentation freely by visiting this link: 
(I will update the link soon. Thanks for waiting.)




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