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12.2.1 The difference between countable and uncountable nouns

Countable nouns can be counted (a/one book, two books, a lot of books), while uncountable nouns cannot (a/one news, two freedoms). Therefore, uncountable nouns only have singular forms and are followed by singular verbs. We should bear in mind that, even though a noun is uncountable in English, the word for it in another language may well be countable, and vice versa. When in doubt, one should always consult a dictionary. However, certain kinds of nouns are usually countable or uncountable in English:

Countable nouns

  • people (a teacher, a child, a gentleman)
  • animals (a butterfly, an elephant, a whale)
  • plants (a flower, a bush, a tree)
  • physical objects (a bag, a pen, a mountain)
  • units (a litre (of), a kind of, a part of, a family, a village, a word)

Uncountable nouns

  • abstract ideas (love, death, beauty)
  • gases (smoke, air, steam)
  • liquids (water, milk, blood)
  • substances and materials (wood, iron, fabric)
  • other substances consisting of many small particles (sugar, rice, sand)