A GUIDE

TO ENGLISH GRAMMAR

A GUIDE
TO ENGLISH GRAMMAR
Explanations, examples and exercises
for first year students

THE NOUN

Countable and uncountable nouns

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
the baby
a rose
that cup
the bird
a key
that shout

plural
the babies
some roses
those cups
the birds
some keys
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

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.
Ex.: Theres 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
(i) Do you have a pleasant job?
(ii) Those meals you cooked were delicious
(iii) I bought two loaves (of bread)

uncountable
(But not: *a pleasant work)
(But not: *Those foods)
(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)

uncountable
(i) Its made of wood.
(ii) Theres too much traffic.

countable
(But not: *made of tree)
(But not: *too much vehicle)

(iii) I sold all the furniture.

(But not: *all the table)

Some and all the are occasionally followed by a singular countable noun. But this is
exceptional.
Ex.: That was some party! (= a very special party)
Ive eaten all the loaf. (=the whole loaf)
Many nouns have both countable and uncountable uses. Some common examples:
countable
A dozen (=12) eggs, please.
Ive told him so many times.
The crowd threw rocks at us.
a strong wind; light winds
She gave a talk on sailing.
the bright lights of the city

uncountable
Theres some egg on your chin.
Weve wasted so much time.
a tunnel through hard rock.
Theres a lot of wind about.
Thats foolish talk.
Light travels very fast.

Some more examples: a glass (some) glass; a cake (some) cake; two papers (some)
paper.
For many nouns, the countable use is for separate items or things, but the uncountable use
is for (an amount of) the material or substance. For example: two onions (some) onion; a
(whole) cheese (some) cheese; a chicken (some) chicken.
A countable noun can also describe a kind or type of X, where X is the uncountable
noun.
Ex.: Gold and silver are valuable metals. (kinds of metal)
This store sells health foods and baby food(s).
Oak is a hard wood.
We sometimes change an uncountable noun into a countable noun. For instance, nouns
for liquids as tea and coffee are usually uncountable, but we can use them as countable nouns
meaning (a) a glass or cup of X, or (b) a type of X.
Ex.: A tea and two coffees, please.
This is an excellent mineral water from Belgium.

NOTE: The meaning of a noun does not always help us to decide whether it is
uncountable. For example, traffic, furniture, baggage (G.B. luggage), money, news refer to a
group of separate things. But English treats them as uncountable; we could say that English
sees these as a mass.