1. Countable nouns are the names of separate objects, people, ideas, and etc which we can count. We can use numbers and a/an with countable nouns; they have plural forms.

Ex. a cat = three cats a newspaper = two newspapers

2. Uncountable nouns are the names of materials, liquids, and other things which we do not see as separate objects. We cannot use a/an or numbers with uncountable nouns; they have no plural forms.

Ex. Water (NOT a water, two waters) Wool (NOT a wool, two wools) Weather (NOT a weather, two weathers) NOTE: Sometimes we use a/an and numbers with, for example, coffee, tea, beer, steak and etc when we order these things by the cup, glass or dish in a restaurant.

Ex. Excuse me, waiter. Could we have two coffees and a tea, please?

3. Uncountable nouns always take singular verbs.

Ex. Milk is good for you. The weather is very good today.

4. Many nouns have both countable and uncountable nouns.

Compare:

I'd like some with paper. (uncountable)
I'm going out to buy a paper. (a newspaper-countable)
The window's made of unbreakable glass. (uncountable)
Would you like a glass of water? (countable)
Could I have some coffee? (uncountable)
Could we have two coffees, please? (cups of coffee-countable)

5. Usually, it is easy to see if a noun is countable or uncountable. Obviously, house is a countable noun, and air is not. But sometimes things are not so clear. For instance, travel and journey have similar meanings, but travel is uncountable (it means "traveling" in general) and journey is countable (it means "one movement from one place to another"). Also, different languages see the world in different ways. For example, hair is uncountable in English, but plural countable in many languages; grapes are plural countable in English, but uncountable in some languages. Here are some more nouns which are uncountable in English, but countable in some other languages.

Accommodation Bread Lightning Luggage Money Spaghetti Thunder Toothache Travel WorkResearch

Advice Information Furniture Knowledge News Progress Rubbish Grass Furniture Knowledge

NOTE: A headache is countable. For more information about particular nouns, look in a good dictionary

6. We can use both countable and uncountable nouns in phrases of quantity with of.

A box of matches A bottle of water Two loaves of bread A piece of news A piece of work

A note of money Three kilos of rice A bar of chocolate A litter of oil A glass of wine

 

EXERCISE: Complete the sentences using one of the following words. Use a/an where necessary.