COUNTABLE / UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS

Juliana Higuita Pelez

A noun can be countable or uncountable. Countable nouns can be "counted", they have a singular and plural form

For example: A book, two books, three books ..... An apple, two apples, three apples ....

Uncountable nouns cannot be counted, they are not separate objects. This means you cannot make them plural by adding -s, because they only have a singular form. It also means that they do not take a/an or a number in front of them.

For example: Water Rice Sand

Countable (use a/an or a number in front of countable nouns) An Apple / 1 Apple

Uncountable (there is no a/an or number with uncountable nouns) Rice

I eat an apple every day.

Add (s) to make a countable noun plural apples I eat an apple every day. Apples are good for you.

I eat rice every day. (not I eat a rice every day.)

There is no plural form for an uncountable noun rice I eat rice every day. Rice is good for you.

Many is used with count nouns:

Question: How many apples are there? Answer: There are many apples in this picture.

Question: How many apples are there in this picture? Answer: There is only one apple.

Question: How many chairs are there? Answer: There are two chairs.

Much is used with non count nouns:

Question: How much fruit is there? Answer: There's a lot of fruit.

Question: How much water is in the glass? Answer: It's almost full. There's a lot of water in the glass.

Question: How much beer is there in his glass? Answer: There isn't any. It's all gone.