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

Uncountable Sugar
Uncountable Question How much sugar is there?

Jewellery How much jewellery is there?

Cheese How much cheese is there?

Wine How much wine is there?

Furniture How much furniture is there? There's some furniture. bottle piece A piece of furniture. How manypieces of furniture are

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

Answer Add a word

There's a lot of There's some There's a lot of There's some sugar. bowl jewellery. piece A piece of jewellery. How cheese. round A round of cheese. How wine.

Make it A bowl of Countable sugar.

How

A bottle of wine. How

Countable manybowls of manypieces of manyrounds of manybottles of Question

sugar are jewellery are cheese are

wine are there?

there? There's one bowl of sugar.

there? There are twopieces of jewellery.

there? There are

there? There's only one There are twopieces of furniture.

there? There are fourbags of money.

Answer

three roundsof bottle of cheese. wine.

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:For example:-

litre

1 and a half litres of milk.

pint

Two pints of beer.

pound / ounce / kilo etc...

Two pounds / ounces / kilos of butter.

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

ball

Ten balls of wool.

bar

Three bars of soap.

pinch

Two pinches of salt.

slice

Five slices of cake.

Fourteen spoon spoonfuls of sugar.

Ten squares of square chocolate.

Container Quantifiers for Food

MOSTLY LIQUID CONTAINERS

cola lemonade soda

peaches pears pickled peppers

MOSTLY DRY CONTAINERS

a spoonful of

a pitcher of

honey medicine ice cream sugar

a bag of water lemonade juice

plastic)

(paper or

flour sugar oats beans

a barrel of a glass of, a bottle of

wine vinegar olive oil whiskey a sack of

milk water beer wine cola

flour rice corn wheat

a gallon of, a liter of a cup of, a mug of, a pot of

milk wine oil orange juice water

a box, a tin, a carton

coffee tea cocoa hot water

pasta cookies rice crackers

a mug of , a glass of, a stein of, a barrel of

a peck of
gallons)

(~2

a carton of
(liquid or dry)

beer

apples

eggs

milk yogurt soup

Shapes

an ear

Shape Quantifiers for Food

NONCOUNT FOOD NOUN

of

(ear botany)

corn wheat

a plate of

LONG

cookies food candy a stalk of a wheel of

a bowl of

of celery rhubarb broccoli

(a rib of celery)

cheese (Swiss) Gruyre cheddar

cereal fruit soup a spear of a slice of

a pound of, a kilo of

asparagus broccoli lemongrass

PART

salami bread (squarish) meat ham cheese

meat apples onions potatoes coffee

a stick of

ROUND

gum cinnamon butter a pod of

(pods)

a bushel of
gallons)

peas beans vanilla cocoa

(4 pecks, 8

a head of apples barley wheat maize oats

lettuce cabbage /cauliflower garlic broccoli "a crown" a clove of

garlic (a section) shallot

Quantifier

HAND MEASURE

a bunch / a cluster of

grapes / dates / figs "cluster" tomatoes bananas onions carrots

(bunch) (bunch) RECTANGLE

a sheet of

a dash dough filo pastry pasta (lasagna)

salt pepper cumin cinnamon

a bar of, a square of a sprig of

a pinch of

parsley / cilantro dill / fennel mint / spearmint thyme / oregano / rosemary

chocolate ice-cream (bar)

salt pepper cinnamon sugar

a cube of (small)

NONCOUNT FOOD NOUN

FLAT

butter sugar

(stick)

a handful of

bouillon ice

(meat flavor)

olives cherry tomatoes nuts raisins beans

a stack of

pancakes with a pat of butter tortillas toast a block of

(large)

a leaf of

ice feta (Greek soft cheese) chocolate armload of

an armful of, an

radishes onions carrots corn

lettuce kale cabbage basil a loaf of

bread banana bread meat loaf

(ground meat mix)