Intermediate Grammar Project

COUNT AND NON-COUNT NOUNS

What is a noun?

Noun could be a person, a thing or a place.

There are two types: countable or uncountable

Countable

We can use “a”, “an”, or numbers.

They can be singular or plural. In plural, we need to add s, es or ies, depending on the noun.

RULES

For plurals

There are exceptions with irregular plural nouns:

goose – geese

man – men

woman – women

Or some nouns that don’t change in their plural form:

deer – deer

sheep – sheep

series – series

species – species

NOTE: We need to pay attention when we use countable nouns:

When the noun is singular: Noun + singular verb

When the noun is plural: Noun + plural verb

Uncountable

We can’t use numbers with them, and they usually don’t have a plural form. They can be in categories like abstract ideas, gases, studies, activities, diseases.

EXAMPLES

water

air

rice

knowledge

beauty

anger

fear

To express a quantity of an uncountable noun, use a word or expression like some, a lot of, much, a bit of and more.

SUMMARY

 SENTENCES

◈ Mary needs to add two cups of water to cook the brown rice.
◈ Yesterday I met a person who speaks three languages. I could not believe it!

◈ In Stella's new apartment, there is a room with large windows.
◈ Angela's jewelry is silver.

REFERENCES

Galimberti, A. (2019). NOUNS 1: COUNT AND NONCOUNT NOUNS; ARTICLES. Free ELT. https://freeeltresources.blogspot.com/2014/07/nouns-1-count-and-noncount-nouns.html