Countable and Uncountable Nouns

What are countable nouns?

Countable nouns are individual objects, people, places, etc. which can be counted.

A countable noun can be both singular - a friend, a house, etc. - or plural - a few apples, lots of trees, etc.

Use the singular form of the verb with a singular countable noun:
dog,

cat, animal, man, person bottle, box, litre coin, note, dollar cup, plate, fork table, chair, suitcase, bag Countable nouns can be singular or plural: My dog is playing. My dogs are hungry.

 Countable
Singular:

nouns have a plural form

a car an eggplant

Plural:

three some dolls many

Uncountable Nouns
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. Here are some more uncountable nouns:

Uncountable Nouns
music,

art, love, happiness advice, information, news furniture, luggage rice, sugar, butter, water electricity, gas, power money, currency

We usually treat uncountable nouns as singular : We use a singular verb. For example:

This news is very important. Your luggage looks heavy. You can count uncountable nouns if you use: A piece of cheese A bowl of soup A cup of tea A bottle ofwine A carton ofmilk A bar of chocolate
MILK

Here are some of the most common containers / quantity expressions for these uncountable nouns:
advice - a piece of advice baggage - a piece of baggage bread - a slice of bread, a loaf of bread equipment - a piece of equipment furniture - a piece of furniture garbage - a piece of garbage information - a piece of information knowledge - a fact luggage - a piece of luggage, a bag, a suitcase money - a note, a coin musica a song, a piece news - a piece of news pasta - a plate of pasta, a serving of pasta research - a piece of research, a research project travel - a journey, a trip work - a job, a position

Here are some more common uncountable food types with their container / quantity expressions

liquids (water, beer, wine, etc.) - a glass, a bottle, a jug of water, etc. cheese - a slice, a chunk, a piece of cheese meat - a piece, a slice, a pound of meat butter - a bar of butter ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard - a bottle of, a tube of ketchup, etc.

EXERCISES

Identify the following objects as countable or uncountable.

1. Q: Information
a) countable b) uncountable

4. Q: Money
a) countable b) uncountable

2. Q: Rules
a) countable b) uncountable

5. Q: Rice
a) countable b) uncountable

3. Q: Sheep
a) countable b) uncountable

6. Q: Bottles Of Wine
a) countable b) uncountable

Put in order the countable and uncountable nouns cup, plate, fork, sugar, salt, bottle, cheese, coin, water, milk, box, litre, tea, coffee, suitcase, bag, ham, cake, dollar, animal, man, person, equipment, traffic, talent, web site, clothes, music, desert, land, nation, fish, pollution, food.

EXERCISES KEY

Identify the following objects as countable or uncountable.

1. Q: Information
a) countable b) uncountable

4. Q: Money
a) countable b) uncountable

2. Q: Rules
a) countable b) uncountable

5. Q: Rice
a) countable b) uncountable

3. Q: Sheep
a) countable b) uncountable

6. Q: Bottles Of Wine
a) countable b) uncountable

Put in order the countable and uncountable nouns

COUNTABLE cup plate fork bottle coin box litre suitcase bag dollar animal man person web site clothes desert nation UNCOUNTABLE sugar salt cheese water milk tea coffee ham cake equipment traffic talent music land fish pollution food