Uncountable and Plural Nouns

Upper- Intermediate
Uncountable Nouns

The following nouns are always uncountable: accommodation, behaviour, health,

politics (and other words with -ics, e.g. athletics, economics), progress, rubbish,
scenery, traffic, weather, work

Uncountable nouns don’t have a plural form, and they have a singular verb.

The scenery is beautiful here.

Don’t use a/an with uncountable nouns

It’s terrible weather today. NOT It’s a terrible weather today.

● These nouns are
uncountable:
advice, bread, equipment,
furniture, homework, news,
information, luck, luggage,
research, toast.
With these, you can use a
piece of to talk about an
individual item.
This is an interesting piece
of research.
Some nouns can be either Other examples:
countable or uncountable,
business, iron, light, paper,
but the meaning changes.
space, time
e.g. a glass - the thing you
drink out of

glass - the material used to

make windows
Examples:

The new opera house is made mainly of glass.

Can I have a glass of water, please?

Our firm does much business with overseas customers.

Two brothers established a clothes retailing business. (company)

We found a parking space close to the museum.

Virtual reality gives us artificial worlds to explore, outside normal space and time.
Plural and Collective Nouns

Plural nouns are nouns with no singular form. They need a plural verb, and they can’t be used
with a/an.

e.g. arms(guns), belongings, clothes, manners, outskirts, scissors and trousers/shorts, etc,.

BUT if the words refers to something with two parts e.g. scissors, shorts, pants, etc., it can be
used with a pair of or some.

I’ll put on a pair of shorts/ some shorts.

Collective Nouns

Collective nouns refer to a group of people. We use them with a singular verb when we refer to the
group.

e.g. crew, family, government, police, staff, team etc.

They (collective nouns) can be used with a plural verb when we are thinking of people as individuals.

My family is very big. BUT My family are all very talkative.

POLICE is always used with a PLURAL VERB

The police ARE appealing to the public for any information about the missing child.