In English, nouns can be divided into countable and uncountable nouns.
Most common nouns are countable: i.e. they have both singular and plural forms: ex. hand - hands.
Other common nouns are uncountable: they have a singular, but no plural: ex. bread - *breads.
1. Examples of countable and uncountable nouns
1a. Countable nouns can be both singular and plural:
singular
plural
the baby
the babies
a rose
some roses
that cup
those cups
the bird
the birds
a key
some keys
that shout
those shouts
1b. Uncountable nouns have no plural: they refer to things you cannot count. Here are examples of concrete nouns (referring to the physical world) which are not countable.
Substances: bread - *breads; dust - *dusts; steel - *steels.
Liquids: blood - *bloods; milk - *milks; alcohol - *alcohols.
Gases: air - *airs; steam - *steams; oxygen - *oxygens.
Many abstract nouns are also uncountable.
peace - *peaces; evidence - *evidences; information - *informations; history - *histories; work (=job) - *works, advice - *advices; gratitude - *gratitudes
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2. What are uncountables?
Uncountables refer to masses which we cannot easily think of as consisting of separate items: i.e. liquids, powders. We can divide many of these masses into subgroups, which are also uncountable:
material: cotton, wool, silk, nylon
meat: beef, pork, lamb, chicken
ex.: Are these socks made of wool or of cotton?
I prefer lamb to chicken.
Types of uncountables
To remember easily, think of substances, liquids, gases, and abstract ideas as uncountable. In the lists of words in a - e, those uncountable nouns which have subgroups of uncountable nouns are marked in bold italic type.
a. Substances:
wood, plastic, leather, cement, chalk, plaster, paint, sand, coal, rock, paper
material: cloth, cotton, silk, wool, nylon
metal: iron, gold, silver, brass, lead
food: flour, rice, bread, wheat, rye, sugar, salt, pepper, meat, fish, fruit, butter, cheese, jam
fur, skin, hair, ice, snow, rain, soil, grass, land, ground
b. Liquids:
water, milk, coffee, tea, oil, petrol <G.B.>, gasoline <U.S.>, juice, alcohol
c. Gases:
air, smoke, steam, oxygen, hydrogen
d. Others (You might expect some of these to be plural, but they are not!):
furniture, luggage, baggage, money, pay, noise, traffic, music, accomodation
e. Abstract ideas:
information, knowledge, advice, education, fiction, (outer) space, time, power, experience, history
NOTE: News looks like a plural noun, but in fact it is singular uncountable.
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Ex.: There's not much news on the radio today.
Note also that work, homework and housework are uncountable.
3. How countables and uncountables behave
3a. Countable nouns
(i) can follow a, an or one
(ii) can follow many, few, these, those
(iii) can follow a number such as two, three, four, ...
countable
uncountable
(i) Do you have a pleasant job?
(But not: ... *a pleasant work)
(ii) Those meals you cooked were delicious
(But not: *Those foods...)
(iii) I bought two loaves (of bread)
(But not: ... *two breads)
3b. Uncountable nouns
(i) can have no article and can follow some in the singular. They take only a singular verb.
(ii) can follow much or little
(iii) can easily follow expressions like most of the, all of the, all the , half the (in the singular)
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