COUNTABLE AND UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS

Countable nouns are the names of separate object, people, ideas etc. which can be counted. We can use numbers and the article a/an with countable nouns; they have plurals.

Example:

a cat     a newspaper    three cats         two newspaper

Uncountable (or ‘mass’) nouns are the names of materials, liquids, abstract boundaries, and not as separate objects. We cannot use numbers with uncountable noun, and most are singular with no plurals. We don’t normally use a/an with uncountable nouns, though there are some exceptions.

Example:

Water (not … a water, two waters)

Weather (not … a weather, three weathers)

Wool (not … a wool, four wools)

Usually it is easy to see whether a noun is countable or uncountable. Obviously house is normally a countable noun, and sand is not. But it is not always so clear; compare a journey (countable) and travel (uncountable); a glass (countable) and glass (uncountable); vegetables (countable) and fruit (uncountable). The following rules will help, but exactly how a particular noun can be used, it is necessary to check in a good dictionary.

This list is a sample of nouns that are commonly used as Uncountable nouns. Many other nouns can also be used as Countable   nouns.

(a ) whole groups made up of similar items : baggage, clothing, equipment, food , fruit, furniture , garbage, hardware ,

jewelry , junk , luggage, machinery, mail, make up , money /cash /change, postage, scenery, stuff, traffic , etc.

(b) fluids : water, coffee, tea, milk, oil, soup, gasoline, blood, etc.

(c) solids : ice, bread, butter, cheese, meat, gold, iron, silver, glass, paper, wood, cotton, wool, etc.

(d) gases : steam, air, oxygen, nitrogen, smoke, smog, pollution, etc.

(e) particles : rice, chalk, corn, dirt, dust, flour, grass, hair, pepper, salt, sand, sugar, wheat, etc.

( f) abstractions :

— beauty, confidence, courage, education, enjoyment, fun, happiness, health, help, honesty, hospitality,

importance, intelligence, justice, knowledge, laughter, luck, music, patience, peace, pride, progress, recreation,

significance, sleep, truth, violence, wealth, etc.

— advice, information, news, evidence, proof, etc.

— time, space, energy, etc.

— homework, work, etc.

— grammar, slang, vocabulary, etc.

(g) languages : Arabic, Chinese, English, Spanish, etc.

(h) fields of study : chemistry, engineering, history, literature, mathematics, psychology, etc.

( i) recreation : baseball, soccer, tennis, chess, bridge, poker, etc.

( j) activities : driving, studying, swimming, traveling, walking (and other gerunds)

(k) natural phenomena : weather, dew, fog, hail.

Okay that’s all what I share about Countable and Uncountable noun. See you next time and thanks for reading! ^_^

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Name : Faris Asyraf Zaini. He was born in Mojokerto - East Java - Indonesia. Motto "Don't Be Affraid To Make Mistake in the Process of Learning!".