Count and Non-Count Nouns Intro

Things that we usually think of as separate and distinct individual units.

Advice, help, information, and knowledge all seem related and are ALL noncount.

Noncount nouns sometimes have no (∅) article. [Example: Water is good for you.]

Some words like religion are both count and noncount.

Idle talk (like gossip) is considered bad manners.

The price of freedom is constant vigilance.

She has a lot of strength and many strengths, due to how her parents raised her.

REMEMBER: If there's a definite article a/an before a noun, it is a count noun!

Fruit, equipment, furniture, mail, clothing, jewelry, clothing, and money are all noncount.

Count nouns are countable, like pieces of cake that are already cut.

One type of noncount nouns are actual things like fabric, oil, hair, grass, meat, or sugar.

Many modifies only countable nouns.

The Christmas lights were cheerful. Light travels faster than the speed of sound. Explain.

Noncount nouns can be used with the definite article "the." (Example: The water was cold.)

Noncount nouns don't pluralize -- at all.

I dove into the water. (How many waters did you dive into?)

This milk is going sour. Is milk a noncount noun?

How many ______________ of beer did they have?

"Beer is good." Here, beer is noncount. What???

Some proper nouns are countable. Ex: Many Greeks celebrated when they won the World Cup Euro.

(Great, now all I can think of is going out for a beer.)

The only exception to the a/an = count is "a little," as in "put a little love in it."

No modifies both countable and uncountable nouns.

How much money will we need?

Only count nouns use a definite article like a/an. (Ex: An apple a day keeps the doctor away.)

Noncount nouns are like cake batter, a thick liquid that cannot be easily divided.

Let's practice! Choose the best way to make the noncount noun soup a plural.

Time flies is an expression using the noncount version of time, meaning times goes by quickly.

Just remember: if you see a/an definite articles, it's the count noun version of the word.

The students ordered three _______________ of coffee on their break.

To make a noncount noun countable or plural, add a unit.

Much or Many -- do you know which modifies count and which is used with noncount?

Things that can't be counted; they are thought of as wholes that can't be cut into parts.

In the sentence, the teacher brought a dozen donuts to class, donuts is a count noun.

I stepped in a puddle. (How many puddles did you step in? Just one.)

Most count nouns pluralize with -s.

Some nouns in English belong to both classes, with both a noncount and a count meaning.

"A good time was had by all," is an idiom and uses time as a countnoun.

Mathematics, Economics, Physics, the News, and Measles, are all noncount but use the -s ending.

The main diff between count/noncount is whether you can count the things they refer to or not.

These often refer to abstract ideas and sometimes have a collective (mass) meaning.

When you call a lecture or speech a talk, it is a count noun.