Work countable or not in English. Uncountable nouns in English: rules, subtleties and nuances
Is everything in the world accountable and measurable? No. True, here we are not talking about such philosophical concepts like love or friendship. We are interested uncountable nouns V English. Let's look at all the nuances of their use.
The concept of an uncountable noun
The words “love” will be most directly related to this topic. Neither one nor the other can be counted. We can say “many loves,” but we cannot say “three loves.” This is how we distinguish between countable and uncountable nouns; the number of the former can always be counted. There may be one bottle of water, two bottles of water (one bottle of water, two bottles of water), but “one water”, “two waters” or “three waters” - so they don't say. The word "water" is uncountable.
Why even get acquainted with the category of uncountable nouns? Is it really impossible to use these words correctly without knowing whether they can be counted? In fact, in English this is important, because it is not used before uncountable nouns. Not definite article"a" (for nouns with a vowel - an), and definite article the used only in some cases.
Types of uncountable nouns
It should be borne in mind that any Russian uncountable noun can have an English counterpart that can be counted. Although discrepancies are quite rare. In any case, you should have an idea of which words can be classified as uncountable, at least in order to correctly use articles with them. The list of uncountable nouns in English includes:
- beauty - beauty, permission - permission;
- names of diseases: flu - influenza;
- weather conditions: rain - rain;
- food: cheese - cheese;
- substances: water - water;
- types of sports or activities: gardening - gardening;
- items: equipment - equipment;
- geographical features: the Mississippi - Mississippi;
- languages: German - German, Russian - Russian.
And also a number of generalizing nouns like information - information, money - money. In most cases, it is not difficult to guess whether a noun is uncountable. But some words can be difficult. For example, hair - hair. Some students become confused when they encounter a hair in assignments. In fact, hair and a hair are different words. The first is indeed uncountable and is translated as hair, the second word means “hair” and can be used in the plural. The word advice can also surprise you. It has no plural, advices does not exist. It can be translated both as “advice” and “advice” depending on the situation. The word fruit does not mean “one fruit”, but “fruits”. It is very rare to find fruits, but it has a rather specific meaning with the approximate meaning of “fruits of different types”.
Features of the use of uncountable nouns: pronouns, articles
With uncountable nouns, only the definite article is used. For example, the news - these news. "a" is never placed in front of them. Also, these nouns do not have a plural form. Many of them are already in the news. But they can well be used with quantitative pronouns: some (a certain amount), little (little), much (many), as well as with demonstratives: this (this), that (that). In addition to all this, there are a number of words that allow you to make uncountable nouns in English countable: piece, bowl, bag, jar, glass, tile, cup, loaf, slice and others.
For example, a bar of soap/chocolate/gold - a bar of soap/chocolate bar/gold bar, a bowl of fruits - a bowl of fruit, a carton of milk - a package of milk, a can of beer - a can of beer, a cup of coffee - a cup of coffee, a loaf of bread - a loaf or loaf of bread.
Uncountable nouns with the expression a piece of
The use of the word “piece” is very interesting. It is often used with abstract and uncountable words that are most unexpected for a Russian person, for example, a piece of advice, a piece of music, a piece of information. And, of course, we will not translate these expressions as “a piece of advice”, “a piece of music” or “a piece of information”, although the latter option is quite acceptable. But since this is quite the translation will be specific: “advice”, “ piece of music", "message".
Agreement of uncountable nouns with verbs
Which verb should I use with an uncountable noun: singular or plural? For example, how do you say "money is on the table"? The money is on the chest or The money are on the chest? The first option will be correct. Only singular verbs are used with uncountable nouns. Examples: the milk is fresh - the milk is fresh, the water is very hot - the water is very hot. But if they are used that allow us to measure uncountable nouns, then verb agreement occurs with them. For example, two cartoons of milk are on the table, three bottles of water are in the refrigerator.
Uncountable nouns in English: types
Can all nouns that cannot be counted be divided into groups? There are two such groups in English, and, oddly enough, they are divided by number, singular or plural. Plural nouns include nouns that end in -s, -es. For example, game names (darts), scientific theories (economics), groups and associations (Police, the Andes). Used before them demonstrative pronouns plural those or these. Before uncountable singular nouns, which are the majority, in this case we use this or that.
Countable and uncountable nouns: examples
To better understand the characteristics of these types of nouns, consider pairs of nouns, one of which is countable and the other uncountable. Particularly interesting are those that have the same translation. So: song - music (song - music), bottle - wine (bottle - wine), report - information (message - information), cupboard - furniture (cabinet - furniture), tip - advice (advice, hint - advice), job - work (work, piecework - work), jorney - travel (travel, trip - journey), view - scenery (review, view - view, landscape). The word "clock", which in Russian is used only in the plural, will appear only in the singular in English. The watch is very expensive - This watch is very expensive. Although, if we're talking about about a set of watches, then it is quite possible to say watches. The word money can also be confusing. After all, the Russian “money” is plural. IN English word money is always, without exception, only a singular number. For example, Money in not for me - Money is not for me. Money is under the pillow - Money under the pillow.
Other interesting uncountable nouns in English: mail (mail, that is, parcels and letters), garlic (garlic), harm (harm, evil, loss, damage), homework ( Homework), chalk (chalk), content (content, text and graphic content of the site), currency (currency), fame (fame, fame, popularity), garbage (garbage, garbage, leftovers), innicence (purity, innocence), jelly ( jam), labor (work, especially physical work), livestock ( livestock, animals kept on a farm).
Uncountable nouns in English and the possessive case
The possessive case expresses property relations. For example, in the phrase “dog's tail” it is unclear who belongs to whom. But if we give the word “dog” the form of the possessive case, then it is immediately clear that the tail belongs to the dog, and not vice versa. The rules for putting English countable nouns into the possessive case are quite simple: you just need to add the ending “s” through an apostrophe, for example dog’s tail. But how do you say “temperature of water,” “mass of a substance,” or “several pounds of ice cream”? It is immediately worth noting that inanimate nouns are extremely rarely used in possessive case. As a rule, the preposition "of" is used, for example: mass of a substance - mass of a substance (as we see, in English, the word "substance" is not uncountable), few pounds of ice-cream - several pounds of ice cream. The construction “noun + noun” is often used. For example, water temperature - water temperature.
Can everything be counted? Is it possible to count the stars in the Universe or the water in the seas and oceans? And if there are hotel stars and water in a glass, is it possible to count these objects? Why am I talking about this - we are talking about the English language. The fact is that in the English language, the possibility or impossibility of counting some objects, as it turns out, affects the grammar. A noun in English can be either countable or uncountable.
How to determine countability? Count!
To determine whether a noun is countable or not, you need to do simple thing- try to count. In most cases, this will solve the problem immediately: two bottles, three friends, four cucumbers. And if it turns out to be some kind of nonsense, it means the noun is uncountable.
It would seem that the issue can be closed. Not really. The first problem that you may encounter here is to look carefully at what exactly you are counting, and do not fall into a logical trap.
For example: is vodka countable? Ha, you say, but what about: there may be 0.5 vodka, maybe 150 - why not calculate. But no, in this case we count liters and milliliters (or grams - as you are used to), and “one vodka, two vodkas” sounds strange. It turns out that vodka is an uncountable noun (and liter is a countable noun).
Countable nouns are those nouns that can be counted individually (two cups, three books, a thousand people). Uncountable nouns can have both singular and plural. one cup - one cup, five cups - five cups.
Uncountable- nouns that cannot be counted (water, love, money). That is, these are those nouns that cannot be preceded by a number indicating their quantity. For example, you cannot say: five loves, eight waters, ten money. The most common uncountable nouns are abstract concepts, solids and liquids. Uncountable nouns have only a singular form, even if translated into Russian in the plural. For example: money - money, hair - hair.
Rules for the use of phrases with countable and uncountable nouns
| Countable nouns |
Not countable nouns |
| Many
- a lot |
Much
- a lot |
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Much and many are translated as "many", but much is used only with uncountable nouns, and many only with countable nouns. Much and many can be used only in interrogative and negative sentences. For affirmative sentences, "a lot of" is used.
The question is "how much? how much?" in English it is given in different ways: for uncountables - how much? for countables - how many? (It is impossible to say how a lot of?) |
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A lot of - a lot In affirmative sentences, the phrase " is used to say "a lot". a lot of" (lots of). It is used with both countable and uncountable nouns. It can also be used in interrogative and negative sentences instead of the words much and many.
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a few - A little I have a few books - I have several books (few books) |
a little - A little I have a little time - I have a little time |
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few - few I have few books - I have few books |
little - few I have little time - I don’t have much time |
Therefore, in English, all objects are divided into countable (those that can be counted) and uncountable (those that cannot be counted).
This topic is basic and very important. Therefore, if you don’t deal with it from the very beginning, you will make mistakes as you further study the language.
In this article I will tell you about countable and uncountable nouns and the features of their use.
From the article you will learn:
- General table comparing countable and uncountable nouns
How to determine whether a noun is countable or not?
Noun- a part of speech that denotes an object or person and answers the question “who?”, “what?”.
How to understand which object is in front of us: countable or not?
It seems that everything is simple. However, there is a little trick here.
Let's take the floor money (money). Can we count the money? Of course we can, you say. However, in English money is an uncountable noun.
Can we really say: “one money, second money, third money”? No, we count rubles/dollars/euros: one ruble, two rubles, etc. But we cannot count the word money, so it will be uncountable.
The same goes for water, milk, lemonade and other drinks. We cannot count these concepts themselves: one is water, the other is water.
Therefore, liters and containers will be countable, but the liquid itself will be uncountable.
Let's look at each concept separately.
Countable nouns in English
Countable nouns(count nouns) are those objects that we can count.
For example:
One apple, two apples, three apples.
One apple, two apples, three apples.
Such words have their own characteristics, let's look at them.
1. Countable nouns have a plural form
- singular (one subject)
- plural (several subjects)
In English, plurals are formed by adding the ending -s to a word.
For example:
cat - cats
cat - cats
cup-cups
cup - cups
bag - bags
bag - bags
pen - pens
pen - pens
I talked in detail about the formation of the plural in this article.
2. With countable nouns we use the article a/an
An article is a small tag that is placed before certain words to help us grasp information about them.
The article a/an comes from the word one and means “one thing”, “some, some”.
We use this article when we speak about one subject. Therefore, we can only use it with items that we can count.
For example:
a cat
(one) cat
a bag
(one) bag
a phone
(one) phone
a pen
(one) handle
You can read more about articles in English.
In addition to the article, we can use other words, depending on the meaning we want to convey.
Let's look at all the words that can appear in front of the subject.
- Article a/an (when we are not talking about something specific, but about a general concept)
She bought a dress.
She bought a dress (some kind of dress, we don't know which one exactly)
- Article the (if we are talking about something specific)
She bought the dress.
She bought a dress (we are talking about a specific dress that we know about)
- Possessive pronouns my, your, his, her, their, our (mine, yours, his, her, theirs, ours). They show who owns the item.
She bought my dress.
She bought my dress.
- Words this (this), that (that)
She bought this dress.
She bought this dress.
3. With plural numbers we use the words many and few/afew
Eat words that we can only use with objects that we can count:
- many - a lot
- few - few
- a few - several
For example:
We've dealt with countable nouns, now let's move on to uncountable nouns.
Uncountable nouns in English
(uncount nouns) - something that we cannot count.
Uncountable nouns include:
- Food(usually something small, like cereal or shapeless)
Butter (butter), cheese (cheese), meat (meat), salt (salt), pepper (pepper), bacon (bacon), bread (bread), chocolate (chocolate), ice (ice), etc.
- Liquid
Water (water), lemonade (lemonade), coffee (coffee), milk (milk), tea (tea), wine (wine), petrol (gasoline), oil (oil), etc.
- Materials
Gold (gold), iron (iron), wood (wood), plastic (plastic), paper (paper), etc.
- Abstract concepts
Luck (luck), music (music), news (news), progress (progress), information (information), knowledge (knowledge), etc.
- Gases
Air (air), oxygen (oxygen), smoke (smoke), etc.
- Diseases
Measles (measles), flu (cold), cancer (cancer)
- Sports
Chess (chess), baseball (baseball), football (soccer), poker (poker), golf (golf), etc.
- Weather phenomena
Weather (weather), heat (heat), wind (wind), rain (rain), snow (snow), etc.
Uncountable nouns also have their own characteristics.
1. They don't change by number.
Such words have only one form - the singular number.
2. With such words we never use the article a/an
We cannot use the article a/an with something that we cannot count. We usually use these words:
- Article the
For example:
I will take the chocolate.
I'll take the chocolate
- The word some - a little, several
For example:
I will take some chocolate.
I'll take some chocolate.
3. With uncountable objects we use the words much,little/ alittle
There are words that we can only use with uncountable objects:
- Much (a lot)
- Little
- A little (a little)
For example:
You drink so much coffee!
You drink so much coffee!
They have little money.
They don't have much money.
4. These concepts become countable when we talk about a piece/glass/liter/kilogram of something.
Uncountable:
Can you give me some bread?
Can you give me some bread?
Bring me some water.
Bring me some water.
Countable:
Can you give me a piece of bread?
Can you give me a piece of bread?
Bring me a glass of water.
Bring me a glass of water.
To reinforce the difference between countable and uncountable nouns, let's look at general table
Let's take a look at the general table and once again trace the difference between these concepts.
| Countable nouns | Uncountable nouns |
| Something we can count For example: apple, cup, pen, telephone |
Something we can't count For example: sugar, water, information, money |
| May be plural For example: apple - apples, pen - pens |
Cannot be plural For example: money - moneys, sugar - sugars |
| Can be used with the article a Also used:
|
Cannot be used with the article a Most often used with:
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| Used with words many, few/a few For example: many cups, a few apples |
Used with words much, little/ a little For example: much money, a little water |
So, we dealt with this topic. Now let's put it into practice.
Reinforcement task
Task 1: Choose which of the following words are countable and which are uncountable:
Pear, football, milk, dress, water, lemon, sugar, car, ball, money, coffee, house, butter, bread, candy.
Task 2: Translate the following sentences into English:
1. I have several oranges.
2. Did she earn a lot of money?
3. Does she have a lot of books?
4. Bring me a glass of wine.
5. I need sugar.
Very important from the point of view of grammar and understanding of native speakers is the rule “Countable and uncountable nouns” in English. It is known that some objects can be counted, while it is impossible to apply quantitative numerals to abstract concepts and substances.
Difference between countable and uncountable nouns
To understand how to determine the type to which a given part of speech belongs and correctly use words in sentences, you should focus on the following basic principles:
- In a countable noun. there are forms of units. h. and pl. h. Together with them you can use digital symbols or the word some (several):
- Uncountable nouns have no plural form. h., but can also be used with some to mean “a certain amount, a little”:
We have some chocolate. - We have some chocolate.
- In negative and interrogative sentences with both types of nouns. the word any is used (any, any, etc.):
They haven't got any coins. - They don't have any coins. (a coin – countable noun)
Have they got any coins? – Do they have any coins?
There isn’t any information about this case. – There is no information about this case. (information – uncountable noun)
Is there any information about this case? – Is there any information about this case?
- In the meaning of “many” with uncountable. noun use much, with calculus. – many:
Kate has much work to do. – Katya has a lot of work. Jack has got many subjects at school. – Jack has a lot of disciplines at school.
- To report a small quantity or volume use little with uncount. noun and few (little) with calculus. noun:
The English also use the expressions “a little”, “a few” with uncountable. and calculus noun accordingly, to report a small but sufficient amount of any objects or substances:
Margaret put a little salt in the soup. Margaret put some salt in the soup.
Sam invited a few friends to the picnic. Sam invited several friends to a picnic.
- From uncountable noun the verb is always used in the singular form. h.:
Love is a nice feeling. – Love is a wonderful feeling.
Coffee helps people to stay active. – Coffee helps people stay active.
These basic rules will help you use countable and uncountable nouns in English without errors.
List of countable nouns in English
To understand which words belong to the group of concepts to be counted, you can look at some categories and examples for them:
- items : a cup (cup), a book (book), a table (table);
- animals, birds, insects, fish: a snow leopard ( snow leopard), an eagle (eagle), a fly (fly), a shark (shark);
- countable products: an apple (apple), an egg (egg);
- containers or packaging: a box (box), a jar (jar), a bar (chocolate bar);
- people, family members, representatives different professions: a grandfather (grandfather), a baby (baby), a doctor (doctor), etc.
This list can be continued endlessly. The main thing is to understand the basic principle: calculus. noun you can recalculate and name their number using a numerical expression.
Some words can be used in plural. hours or units h., if they have a collective meaning: family, team, army, audience, etc. But noun. police (police) is always used with plural verbs. h.
My family is/ are on holiday now. – My family is on vacation now. The police are near his house. - The police are near his house.
Special cases
Some nouns are inconstant and move from the category of uncountable. in calculus depending on the meaning that the speaker puts into the sentence.
It is necessary to take into account such nuances when composing and translating English sentences.