To count or not to count...
Countable and uncountable nouns
Some nouns can be counted, others can't. Now, what does that mean?
Think of a pen. The noun is pen, it has a plural form pens. If you want to say how many pens there are, you can just give a number as an answer:
"How many pens do you need for the class?" "Three or four should be enough."
You can imagine each of these nouns as individual items.
Now think of air? Firstly, notice that there is no article before it.
In its most common use, referring to what we breathe, it doesn't have a plural form either. Air is all around us, we don't see it as an individual item. We can't count air.
With nouns like pen and air, it's quite easy to understand if they are countable or uncountable. It's not always so easy though.
What about cheese?
Read the text and complete the activity
Cheese or cheeses?
Some nouns are usually uncountable, like furniture, accommodation, music and luggage. Some are usually countable, like chair, room, song and suitcase. Most nouns, though, can be either countable or uncountable. It doesn't depend on the noun but on the context, on how it is being viewed.
For example, many nouns for food and drink items such as cheese, water, milk, rice,sugar and butter are normally regarded as uncountable nouns. Nouns like these however can also be countable, particularly when we think of them as different kinds or varieties of a product.
These days supermarkets sell many different cheeses.
Demarara, muscovado and caster are some of the different sugars we can use when baking.
Apple or apples?
Fruit and vegetables are normally regarded as being countable as we see them as individual items.
We need to get some apples = Countable
If, however, someone has one apple and is offering you a piece of it, the noun apple becomes uncountable.
Would you like some apple? = Uncountable
Uncountable or countable: does it matter?
Yes. Countable and uncountable nouns have different grammar and are used with different words.
Countable nouns can have plural forms. They can be used with the indefinite article.
Uncountable nouns are normally used with singular forms and can't be used with the indefinite article.
Words and phrases that go with countable nouns
many, a few, a number (of), several, fewer
Words and phrases that go with uncountable nouns:
much, a little, a bit (of), a great deal of, less, amount
Words and phrases that go with both countable and uncountable nouns:
no, none, some, any, a lot (of), plenty (of), lots of, more, quantity
Session Grammar
* Countable nouns These are nouns you can count! They are for things we see as individual items and not part of a greater whole. They can be used with indefinite articles, and have a plural form. A table, two tables, a chair, four chairs, a person, 12 people, an apple, 10 apples
* Uncountable nouns These are nouns for things we don't see as individual items. They aren't used with indefinite articles and don't usually have plural forms. Air, water, milk, luggage, accommodation, furniture, money
* Both A lot of nouns can be both countable and uncountable depending on the situation and how we see them. I drank a lot of wine at the party = Uncountable, refers to the amount of the liquid consumed. Our local shop stocks a lot of different wines = Countable, refers to a number of different varieties of the drink, rather than an amount of the liquid.
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uncountable nouns
There is a way that we can count uncountable nouns where we use a quantifier. Cake, information and chocolate are all uncountable nouns. We can communicate quantity with the following examples;
Unit
Cake = a piece of cake
Information = a bit of information
Chocolate = a bar of chocolate
Container
Chocolate = a box of chocolate
Coffee = a cup of coffee
Soup = a bowl of soup
Measurements
Milk = a liter of milk
Come up with the quantifier for the following examples;
1. Bread
2. Water
3. Toothpaste
4. Tea
5. Seafood
6. Cream
7. Sugar
8. Orange juice
9. Cheese
10. Toast
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