Countable & Uncountable Nouns + 50 Examples

What are countable and uncountable nouns? And how do we use them in English grammar? We'll learn all about them today with lots of examples. Make sure to download the PDF guide to this lesson because it has the lesson text as well as a quiz to help you practice countable and uncountable nouns. Just click on the link under this video and enter your email to get that free PDF lesson guide and quiz. Okay, we'll start with countable nouns. These are things we can easily count. For example, cats. My brother has a cat, one cat. My sister has two cats. My friend has three cats. Other examples of countable nouns are things. Book, table, computer, banana, shirt, television, pen, and house. People. Man, woman, child, friend, brother, sister, uncle, teacher, and boss. Those are all countable. With most countable nouns, we add S to make them plural. Cat, cats. But there are some irregular plural nouns like person, people, one man, two men, one child, ten children, and others. Uncountable nouns, or sometimes they're called non-count nouns, are words that we can't count or we can't easily divide into separate parts. These include a lot of concepts like love, fun, sadness, work, money, peace, and safety. Information like advice, information, news, and knowledge. Words that are categories like music, furniture, equipment, jewelry, literature, and meat. And liquids and foods that can't be easily counted like water, butter, rice, flour, and milk. Now, be careful here. Some English learners think that all countable nouns are physical objects and all uncountable nouns are not physical objects. But that's not true. We do have non-physical countable nouns like ideas, beliefs, hopes, and dreams. And we have physical uncountable nouns that are actually objects like furniture, luggage, butter, and milk. You'll see a lot more examples of uncountable nouns at the end of this lesson. I'll give you a list and it's also in the lesson PDF that you can download. But for now, let's learn some special grammar rules for uncountable nouns. The first one is never add S to make uncountable nouns plural, okay? Don't say, I need some informations about the course. The correct sentence is, I need some information about the course. Don't say, the factory has lots of equipments. Instead, say, the factory has lots of equipment. In your own native language, it might be possible to make these types of nouns plural. But in English, it is not. So how can we quantify? How can we count uncountable nouns? You can use other words to help. For example, she bought three bottles of wine and five boxes of rice. I need two cups of flour and four tablespoons of butter for this recipe. So we use countable words for measurements and quantities or containers. It's also very common to use the word piece. For example, they brought five pieces of luggage on their vacation. Don't say five luggages. Five pieces of luggage. He gave me two pieces of advice. Not two advices, two pieces of advice. Eat less and exercise more. I'm practicing three difficult pieces of piano music. Don't say musics, three pieces of music. The second rule is we never use a or an with uncountable nouns. Instead, you can use some or a piece of. So don't say I heard a sad news. News is uncountable, so we can't use a. Instead, say I heard some sad news. Don't say that's an expensive jewelry. Instead, we can say that's an expensive piece of jewelry. Or we can be more specific and say that's an expensive necklace. Necklace is countable, but jewelry as the category is uncountable. Got it? There are also some details to remember when it comes to quantity words. In English, we use different quantity words with countable and uncountable nouns. So with countable nouns, you can use many, a few, fewer, and the fewest. For example, how many brothers do you have? I have a few books in my backpack. There are fewer people here today than there were yesterday. Out of the whole team, John made the fewest mistakes in his work. But with uncountable nouns, we use much, a little, less, and the least. For example, our teacher gives us too much homework. Not too many homework, too much homework. Add a little butter to the recipe. I'm trying to eat less red meat. Compared to my friends, I make the least money. Not the fewest money, the least money. And we can use the words some, any, more, the most, a lot of, and lots of with both countable and uncountable nouns. For example, she bought some bananas at the store. Bananas are countable. We heard some great music on the radio this morning. Music is uncountable. Does he have any children? Children? Countable. He doesn't have any furniture in his new house. Uncountable. We need to buy more bananas. Countable. We need to buy more equipment. Uncountable. I've read the most books in my class. Books are countable. The boss gave me the most work. Work is uncountable. She has a lot of or lots of friends. Friends are countable. We're having a lot of or lots of fun. Fun is uncountable. Most nouns in English are countable, but let me just give you some common uncountable nouns organized by category. So, we have liquids, grains, and semi-solids like blood, cheese, dirt, flour, granola, honey, ice, juice, milk, oatmeal, rice, salt, sand, soap, sugar, and water. Oh, and yogurt. A lot of categories or mass nouns are also uncountable like agriculture, clothing, commerce, education, entertainment, equipment, furniture, garbage, infrastructure, knowledge, luggage, music, research, scenery, seafood, stuff, traffic, transportation, and wildlife. Uncountable nouns do include a number of abstract ideas or qualities like access, attention, chaos, courage, creativity, damage, evidence, expertise, harm, honesty, intelligence, justice, leisure, magic, money. Wait, can't we count money? I know. It's weird, but money is considered uncountable. So, we never say monies, but we can count dollars, euros, pounds, etc. Also in this category, motivation, nature, nonsense, peace, silence, tolerance, violence, wealth, and wisdom. All uncountable nouns. And a lot of the noun forms for feelings are also uncountable like anger, compassion, confusion, gratitude, guilt, happiness, jealousy, laughter, pride, and sadness. Now, there are actually some words that can be both countable and uncountable, but that will have to wait for my next lesson. I hope you enjoyed this one. Your next step is to try the quiz inside that free PDF. Again, download it by clicking on the link under this video. And if you want to take your grammar to a higher level, come join my Advanced English Grammar course, which you can find at EspressoEnglish.net. Well, what other English grammar topics would you like to learn about? Leave me a comment and let me know. Bye for now.