COUNTABLE/

UNCOUNTABLE
NOUNS
Resista Vikaliana, 2014
There are 2 kinds of noun in
English:
 Countable  Uncountable
 Things you can count  Things you can´t count
(singular or plural) (they can’t be plural)
 One apple, two apples,  Butter, meat…
three apples…  Some nouns can be
countable or
uncountable but the
meaning is different.
 Example: chocolate
© Rafael Moreno Esteban 2007
There are some nouns we can use in both countable and
uncountable form;

Countable Meaning
 There is a hair in my soup

 A chicken escaped from the henhouse.

 My favorite works of art are from China.

Uncountable Meaning
 Sandra has black and long hair.

 We had chicken for dinner.

 It takes work to prepare a meal.

COUNTABLE NOUNS

 Countable nouns have a plural form

 Singular: a car
 an eggplant


COUNTABLE NOUNS

 We can use countable nouns with certain

definition of numbers.

 For example; two kilograms tomatoes, five

dictionaries, seven group of cows, tons of
oranges, three kilograms lemons, eighty students
COUNTABLE NOUNS

SINGULAR FORM PLURAL FORM

 a mobile phone  five mobile phones

 a computer  seven computers
 a business magazine  three business
 an english book magazines
 a dictionary  nine english books
 eleven dictionaries
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" ( quantifiers) or "litres of milk",
but we cannot count "milk" itself.
UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS
Notice the following categories and examples of
uncountable nouns;

 Abstractions: chance, energy, honesty, love…

 Activities: basketball, dancing, singing, tennis…
 Diseases: AIDS, cancer, influenza, malaria…
 Foods: beef, bread, fish, fruit, meat…
 Gases: air, carbon dioxide, oxygen, smoke…
 Liquids: coffee, gasoline, milk, tea, water…
 Natural phenomena: electricity, heat, rain, thunder…
UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS

 Occupations: dentistry, nursing, teaching…

 Particles: dust, pepper, salt, sand, sugar…
 Solid elements: gold, iron, plutonium, silver…
 Subjects: Chinese, English, physics, science…
 Others: equipment, furniture, money, news…
Some Examples with Uncountable
Nouns
 I drink a cup of coffee in everyday.
 There is any sugar in the kitchen.
 My mother buy seven bottles of milk for a week.
 She eats a bar of chocolate whenever she wants.
 He met me with a bunch of flower in his arms.
 There is so much butter in this meal.
 Everybody feels the love inside himself.
 We have a group of furniture in our house.
 They wanted some salt for their plumbs.
 In summer, I like drinking water with a block of ice.
 I bought a pocket of tea for my guests.
 There was so much snow that we all were cold
when we were outside.
 The room has little ligth. We nearly can see each
other.
 Identify the following objects as countable or
uncountable.

1. Q: Information 4. Q: Money
a) countable a) countable
b) uncountable b) uncountable
2. Q: Rules 5. Q: Rice
a) countable a) countable
b) uncountable b) uncountable
3. Q: Sheep 6. Q: Bottles Of Syrup
a) countable a) countable
b) uncountable b) uncountable
a/an / some/ any
A / AN / SOME / ANY
Type of sentence Countable Uncountable
+ We need an apple some butter
some apples some milk
- We don’t need a tomato any rice
any tomatoes any sugar
? Do we need a tomato? any rice?
any tomatoes? any sugar?
 Use a / an with singular countable nouns.
 Use some with plural countable nouns and uncountable nouns in +
sentences.
 Use any with plural countable nouns and uncountable nouns in – or ?
sentences.
 We can also use some in ? to ask for and offerings:
 Can I have some coffee?
 Do you want some biscuits?
© Rafael Moreno Esteban 2007
I’d like some juice.

unspecified quantity

I’d like a glass of juice.

specified quantity
Some: Affirmative sentences:
There is some money

Any: Negative and Interrogative

sentences:
Is there any money?
No, there isn’t.

There isn’t any money

Other Uses of ‘any’
 To mean “all” or “every”
 Any Sales Managers can sale these products
 For comparison, we use any
 This situation is more serious than anyone predicts
 This case is too complicated than anything happened
Replace the underlined words with a word or
phrase from these italic words below

 a few much all no few most

1. Not many but some of our clients responded to the survey
2. The majority of them had some positive comments to make
3. Not one of our customers thought our products were
unreliable
4. A lot of constructive criticism centred on product distribution
and delivery
5. Not many and not enough customers wanted regular news
on our new products and services
6. Every one of the respondents said our packaging was good
7-8 Let’s Practice

some any

I need _____
some time to study.
7-8 Let’s Practice

some any

There is _____
some cheese.
 7-8 Let’s Practice

some any

There aren’t _____

any horses in the
field.
Choose a / an / some

 some Milk  some Wine

 some Biscuits
 some Cars
 a Chair
 some People
 some  some Homework
Coffee
 some  some / an
Pasta Ice cream
 some  an
Money Orange
 some  some
Students Fruit
 some / a  some
Toast Fish
© Rafael Moreno Esteban 2007
How Much? How Many?
 How much / how many…?
 Possible answers:
 Use How much…?  I drink a lot of water.
with uncountable nouns.  I drink quite a lot.
 How much water do you drink?  I don’t drink much water.
 Use How many…? (not much)
 I don’t drink any water.
with plural countable
 None.
nouns.  Not many (students).
 How many students do you
have?

© Rafael Moreno Esteban 2007

 How Many or How Much ?

1. How much/ How many cars are

there?

There are six

cars!
2. How much/ How many Sugar is
there?

There are three spoons of sugar

3. How much/ How many pictures
are there?

There are six

pictures.
4. How much/ How many milk is
there?

There are two

boxes of milk
Quantifiers
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 of…syrup

 A carton of…milk MILK

 A bar of… chocolate

 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, juice 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.
COUNTABLE UNCOUNTABLE

 All
 All of the
 Many (of the)
 Most (of the)
 Most (of the)
 Much of the
 A lot of
 A lot of the
 Lots of
 Lots of
 Several (of the)
 Several (of the)
 A few (of the)
 a little (of the)
 Few (of the)
 Little (of the)
 no
 no
References:
 Basic of English Betty Schrampfer A., New Jersey: Prentice Hall
Regent, 1989
 The Language of Business English (Grammar and Functions).
Prentice Hall International Ltd, London, 1994
 www.taipolst.edu.hk/.../P2CountableNouns_and_Uncountable
Nouns.ppt (has been downloaded in November 2014)
 egitim.erciyes.edu.tr/.../2.../50Countable-uncount.PPT (has been
downloaded in November 2014)
 www.educacional.com.br/.../countable%20and%20uncountable
%20noun. (has been downloaded in November 2014)