Countable nouns are easy to recognize. They are things that we can count. For
example: "pen". We can have one, two, three or more pens.
Here are some more countable nouns:
cat, pen, animal, man, person
,bag,cup,coins
Countable nouns can be singular or plural:
My
dog is playing.
My dogs are hungry.
We can use the indefinite
article a/an with countable nouns:
A dog is an animal.
When a
countable noun is singular, we must use a word like a/the/my/this with
it:
I want an orange. (not I want orange.)
Where is my bottle? (not
Where is bottle?)
When a countable noun is plural, we can use it
alone:
I like oranges.
Bottles can break.
We can use some
and any with countable nouns:
I've got some dollars.
We can use a few and many with countable nouns:
I've got a few
dollars.
I haven't got many pens.
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" or "litres of milk", but we cannot count "milk"
itself.
Some more uncountable nouns:
music, art, love,
happiness
advice, information, news
furniture, luggage
rice, sugar,
butter, water
electricity, gas, power
money, currency
We
usually treat uncountable nouns as singular. We use a singular verb. For
example:
This news is very important.
Your luggage looks
heavy.
We do not usually use the indefinite article a/an with
uncountable nouns. We cannot say "an information" or "a music". But we can say a
something of:
a piece of news
a bottle of water
a grain of
rice
We can use some and any with uncountable nouns:
I've got some
money.
Have you got any rice?
We can use a little and much
with uncountable nouns:
I've got a little money.
I haven't got much rice.
