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
Thanks bhk b
What is the meaning of a crisis, two tensions, two fights ,two controversies, a dilemma, paradoxes of life ?
I try to understand these words in the Same way as competition.
5 match test series is a competition between India and England.
Hello akash sen,
For most of these you can find perfectly good definitions in online dictionaries:
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/
https://www.merriam-webster.com
The last phrase has a slightly less literal meaning. A paradox is a statement which appears logically contradictory or whose conclusion does not seem logically possible. The paradoxes of life suggests that there are aspects of our lives which are like this.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
I don't have any piece of information about this incident, if you have some thing know about it ,kindly illuminate.
In our garden, we have many orange trees and some lemon trees. But we don’t have any apple tree. We didn’t have much water to plant more trees, but I thought about digging a well. However, we didn’t have much money. Then, our younger brother, who works as an engineer in England, responded to our need and sent us a lot of money. Now, the garden has become a small, lush forest.
Coffee, rice, milk is uncountable. But, what if a cup of coffee or a plate of rice, Is it become countable? And why money is uncountable?
Hello Fajar_Hilyan,
Coffee and milk are uncountable when we talk about them as substances. However, as you say, when we talk about a given quantity of that substance it is countable:
For some of these items which we drink very often we even omit the words 'cup of' or 'glass of'. In a cafe or bar you might ask for a drink like this:
Like wealth, money is uncountable but notes, coins and currencies are countable. For example:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Teama
Dear Sir, can we say "how many juices do you have?" referring to packaged juices?
Hello Ziyo1978,
You can use the plural form juices to mean 'different kinds of juice' so the answer is yes.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team