Nouns

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. Here are 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.

Countable Nouns

Countable nouns are easy to recognize. They are things that we can count. For example: "pen". We can count pens. We can have one, two, three or more pens. Here are some more countable nouns:

dog, cat, animal, man, person

bottle, box, litre

coin, note, dollar

cup, plate, fork

table, chair, suitcase, bag

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.

Have you got any pens?

We can use a few and many with countable nouns:

I've got a few dollars.

I haven't got many pens.

Bibliography

A Brief Handbook by Ann Raimes. Houghton Mifflin: New York. 1996.

Laycock, Henry. (2005) 'Mass nouns, Count nouns and Non-count nouns' Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. Oxford: Elsevier.

“Theoretical grammar of the English language” B.S. Khaimovich, B.I. Rogovskaya. Moscow, 1967 y.

Laycock, Henry. (2006) Words without Objects. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Merrifield, William (1959).>

“Morphology of the English language”А.I.Smirnitcky. Moscow, 1959 y.

Mithun, Marianne (1999). The languages of native North America (pp. 81-82, 444-445). Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-23228-7.

Sprott, Robert (1992). Jemez syntax. (Doctoral dissertation, University of Chicago, USA).

« Modern English language» (Theoretical course grammar) V.N. Zhigadlo, I.P. Ivanova, L.L. Iofik. Moscow, 1956 y.

englishclub/grammar/nouns.htm