Nouns: countable and uncountable
Look at these examples to see how to use countable and uncountable nouns in a sentence.
I'm making a cup of tea.
There's some money on the table.
Have we got any bread?
How many chairs do we need?
How much milk have we got?
Try this exercise to test your grammar.
- Grammar test 1
Read the explanation to learn more.
Grammar explanation
Nouns can be countable or uncountable. Countable nouns can be counted, e.g. an apple, two apples, three apples, etc. Uncountable nouns cannot be counted, e.g. air, rice, water, etc. When you learn a new noun, you should check if it is countable or uncountable and note how it is used in a sentence.
Countable nouns
For positive sentences we can use a/an for singular nouns or some for plurals.
There's a man at the door.
I have some friends in New York.
For negatives we can use a/an for singular nouns or any for plurals.
I don't have a dog.
There aren't any seats.
Uncountable nouns
Here are some examples of uncountable nouns:
| bread | rice | coffee | information |
| money | advice | luggage | furniture |
We use some with uncountable nouns in positive sentences and any with negatives.
There's some milk in the fridge.
There isn't any coffee.
Questions
In questions we use a/an, any or how many with countable nouns.
Is there an email address to write to?
Are there any chairs?
How many chairs are there?
And we use any or how much with uncountable nouns.
Is there any sugar?
How much orange juice is there?
But when we are offering something or asking for something, we normally use some.
Do you want some chocolate?
Can we have some more chairs, please?
We also use some in a question when we think the answer will be 'yes'.
Have you got some new glasses?
Other expressions of quantity
A lot of (or lots of) can be used with both countable and uncountable nouns.
There are lots of apples on the trees.
There is a lot of snow on the road.
Notice that we don't usually use many or much in positive sentences. We use a lot of instead.
They have a lot of money.
However, in negative sentences we use not many with countable nouns and not much with uncountable nouns.
There are a lot of carrots but there aren't many potatoes.
There's lots of juice but there isn't much water.
Go to Countable and uncountable nouns 2 to learn more.
Try this exercise to test your grammar again.
- Grammar test 2
Hello there! I am not an English teacher, but I think I can give you some information for your questions.
In English, you cannot say "one coffee, two coffees..." or "one milk, two milks...". And if you want to count these nouns, you must use them with partitives (a type of quantifiers), like "a cup of...", "a bottle of...". In this way, "a cup of coffee", "a bottle of milk" have become countable nouns.
About the second question, money is a general term referring to the value of assets or wealth, it is not a particular thing that you can count. You can tell someone "I have 10 moneys in my wallet.", right? You just can count specific units of currency; for example, "one dollar, two dollars..."
I hope my comment can help you to answer your questions.
Have a nice day.
Why Chocolate is consider as Uncountable Noun here? I can count the No. of Chocolates right?
Hello Harshi11,
Chocolate can be countable or uncountable. If you think of the substance then it is uncountable:
I love chocolate.
Do you have any chocolate?
If you think of individual sweets in a box, for example, then it is countable:
I got a box of chocolates for my birthday.
Would you like a chocolate? The ones in red wrappers are milk and the ones in blue wrappers are dark chocolate.
There are many words that function in this way, especially food and drink such coffee, tea, pizza and cocoa.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
What if its liquid? Which is what the question is probably asking about.
Hello richace,
Drinking chocolate can also be either countable (a cup of chocolate) or not, just like cocao.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi! Why is that the given question uses "is there" but the answer uses "are there"?
For example:
Question: How much milk is there?
Answer: There are two glasses of milk.
Hi Cath,
It all depends on the noun used.
In the question the noun is milk, which is an uncountable noun and so we use 'there is', just as we do for all uncountable nouns.
In the answer the noun is 'glasses (of milk)'. Now we have a countable noun which is plural and so we use 'there are'.
If the answer included just the uncountable noun 'milk' it would have 'there is':
If the answer included a countable noun which was singular we would also use 'there is':
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello walmart, i cant find the milk where is it.
Hey, if the object is uncountable such as milk, we use 'much' instead of 'many' and 'is' instead of 'are' because it is considered singular in this context. On the other hand, the answer is 'There are two glasses of milk' because Glasses are countable and p