Countable/uncountable nouns

 

There are two kinds of nouns in English, countable and uncountable.

Countable = Countable nouns are easy to recognize. They are things that we can count. For example: “pen”. We can count pens. We can have one, two, three or more pens.

Countable nouns can be singular or plural:

• My dog is playing.
• My dogs are hungry.

We can use the indefinite article a/an with countable nouns:

• A dog is an animal.

When a countable noun is plural, we can use it alone, I like oranges, or we can use some and any, I have some dollars, Do you have any pens?

“People” is countable. “People” is the plural of “person”. We can count people: There is one person here – There are three people here.

Uncountable = Uncountable nouns are substances, concepts, etc that we cannot divide into separate elements. We cannot “count” them. For example, we cannot count “milk”. We can count “bottles of milk” or “litres of milk”, but we cannot count “milk” itself.

Drinks (coffee, water, orange juice) are usually uncountable. But if we are thinking of a cup or a glass, we can say (in a restaurant, for example):

• Two teas and one coffee please.

We treat uncountable nouns as singular. We use a singular verb. For example: Your luggage looks heavy.

Uncountable nouns can’t be plural: butter, meat NOT two butters , three meats.

We use some and any with uncountable nouns:

• I’ve got some money.
• Have you got any rice?

REMEMBER: we use some in positive sentences and any in negative sentences + questions. Examples:
I have some friends - Do you have any cheese? – He doesn’t have any friends in Chicago.
Try now some exercises: 1,  2,  3

We use How much …? with uncountable nouns and How many …..? with plural countable nouns. Exercises 1, 2, 3,
Finally you can listen and watch the song and complete the lyrics.

Source: EOI Elx