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:
| Countable nouns | Uncountable nouns | Nouns that can be both uncountable and countable | |
| There are two hairs in my coffee | I don't have much hair. | hair | |
| There are two lights in our bedroom. | Close the curtain. There's too much light! | light | |
| There are so many different noises in the city. | It's difficult to work when there is too much noise. | noise | |
| Have you got a paper to read? | Have you got some paper? | paper | |
| Our house has seven rooms. |
|
room | |
| We had a great time at the party. | Have you got time for a coffee? | time | |