Countable and Uncountable Nouns

Countable and Uncountable Nouns

It can be quite tricky to know when to use a countable or an uncountable noun, especially because some nouns that are countable in other languages are uncountable in English and some nouns can be both countable and uncountable!

Here are a few tips to help you understand the use of nouns in English:

What are countable nouns?

Countable nouns are the kind of words that we can count.

 Key words 

There are some key words that we use with countable nouns for example: many, a lot of, a, an, lots of, some, a few, few, a number of, one, two, three, the.

Examples:

Dog, cat, animal, man, person, bottle, box, litre, coin, note, dollar, cup, plate, fork, table, chair, suit, case, bag...

What are uncountable nouns?

Uncountable nouns are the kind of words that we can't count.

 Key words 

There are some key words that we use with uncountable nouns for example: much, a lot of, how much, a lot of, lots of, some, a little, an amount of, a piece of, the.

Examples :

Music, art, love, happiness, advice, information, news, furniture, luggagerice, sugar, butter, water, electricity, gas, power, money, currency...

Why can some nouns be both countable and Uncountable?

That is a good question and the reason is that...

There are some nouns that they can be both, this often happens when we talk about a material or substance and a thing made out of it.

Examples

Look at this table for a list of nouns and their forms: