A noun can be countable or uncountable. Countable nouns can be "counted", they have a singular and plural form .

For example:

A book, two books, three books ..... An apple, two apples, three apples ....

Uncountable nouns (also called mass nouns or noncount nouns) cannot be counted, they are not seperate objects. This means you cannot make them plural by adding -s, because they only have a singular form. It also means that they do not take a/an or a number in front of them. For example:

Water Work Information Coffee Sand Countable (use a/an or a number in front of countable nouns) Uncountable (there is no a/an or number with uncountable nouns) Rice I eat rice every day. (not I eat a rice every day.) There is no plural form for an uncountable noun rice I eat rice every day. Rice is good for you. To make uncountable nouns countable add

An Apple / 1 Apple I eat an apple every day.

Add (s) to make a countable noun plural Apples I eat an apple every day. Apples are good for you.

A computer= Computers are fun.

a counting word, such as a unit of measurement, or the general word piece. We use the form "a ....... of ......."

An elephant=Elephants are large.

Rice=a grain of rice Water=a glass of water Rain=a drop of rain Music=a piece of music

You can use some and any with countable nouns. Some dogs can be dangerous. I don't use any computers at work.

You can use some and any with uncountable nouns. I usually drink some wine with my meal. I don't usually drink any water with my wine.

You only use many and few with plural countable nouns. So many elephants have been hunted that they are an endangered species. There are few elephants in England. You can use a lot of and no with plural countable nouns. No computers were bought last week. A lot of computers were reported broken the week before.

You only use much and little with uncountable nouns. I don't usually drink much coffee. Little wine is undrinkable though. You can use a lot of and no with uncountable nouns. A lot of wine is drunk in France. No wine is drunk in Iran.

Making uncountable nouns countable

You can make most uncountable noun countable by putting a countable expression in front of the noun. For example:

A piece of information. 2 glasses of water. 10 litres of coffee. Three grains of sand. A pane of glass.

Sources of confusion with countable and uncountable nouns

The notion of countable and uncountable can be confusing. Some nouns can be countable or uncountable depending on their meaning. Usually a noun is uncountable when used in a general, abstract meaning (when you don't think of it as a separate object) and countable when used in a particular meaning (when you can think of it as a separate object). For example:glass - A glass of water. (Countable) | A window made of glass. (Uncountable) Some supposedly uncountable nouns can behave like countable nouns if we think of them as being in containers, or one of several types. This is because 'containers' and 'types' can be counted. Believe it or not each of these sentences is correct:Doctors recommend limiting consumption to two coffees a day. (Here coffees refers to the number of cups of coffee) You could write; "Doctors recommend limiting consumption to two cups of coffee a day."

The coffees I prefer are Arabica and Brazilian. (Here coffees refers to different types of coffee) You could write; "The types of coffee I prefer are Arabica and Brazilian."

!Note - In good monolingual dictionaries, uncountable nouns are identified by [U] and
countable nouns by [C].

Remember It Questions
How much ....? = uncountable nouns For example: How much coffee do you drink? How many ....? = countable nouns For example: How many cups of coffee do you drink?

Learn It
How do you count uncountable nouns? You can't, but you can measure them. You have to use counters

Noun

Uncountable Sugar
Uncountable Question sugar is there? There's a Answer lot of sugar. Add a word bowl

Jewellery

Cheese

Wine

Furniture How much furniture is there? There's some furniture. piece A piece of furniture. How many pieces of there?

Money How much money is there? There's a lot of money. bag A bag of money. How many bags of there? There are

How much How much How much How much jewellery is cheese is there? There's some jewellery. piece there? There's a lot of cheese. round wine is there? There's some wine. bottle

Make it A bowl of A piece of A round of A bottle of Countable sugar. jewellery. cheese. wine.
How many How many How many How many

Countable bowls of pieces of rounds of bottles of Question sugar are jewellery cheese are wine are
there? are there? there? There are There are there?

furniture are money are

Answer

There's

There's only There are

one bowl of sugar.

two jewellery.

three cheese.

one bottle of two pieces wine.

four bags of

pieces of rounds of

of furniture. money.

Other words you can add to make uncountable nouns countable:You can put something into a container to count it, but the thing you're counting doesn't take the plural form. The container takes the plural form:bag A bag of money.

barrel

Two barrels of beer.

bottle

Three bottles of wine.

bowl

Four bowls of sugar.

box

Five boxes of cereal.

bucket

Six buckets of water.

can

Seven cans of Coke.

carton

Eight cartons of milk.

cup

Nine cups of coffee.

glass

Ten glasses of water.

jar

Eleven jars of honey.

packet

A dozen packets of butter.

a saucepan

Thirteen pans of rice.

tank

Fifteen tanks of petrol.

tin

Sixteen tins of custard.

tub

Seventeen tubs of margarine.

tube

Eighteen tubes of toothpaste.

You can measure something to count it, but it still doesn't take the plural form. The measurement takes the plural form:1 and a half litres of milk. For example:-

litre

pint

Two pints of beer.

Two pounds / pound / ounce / kilo etc... ounces / kilos of butter.

You can measure uncountable nouns in other ways, using shapes or portions. Again the measurement takes the plural form. Ten balls of wool.

ball

bar

Three bars of soap.

pinch

Two pinches of salt. Five slices of cake. Fourteen

slice

spoon

spoonfuls of sugar. Ten squares of chocolate.

square