Countable Nouns and Uncountable Nouns

It is important to distinguish between Countable Nouns and Uncountable Nouns in English. Because their usage is different in regards to both determiners and verb.

1.  Countable Nouns

Countable nouns are for things we can using numbers. They have a singular and a plural form. The singular from can use the determiner “A, Or, and An”. If you want to ask about the quantity of a countable nooun, you ask “How Manny?” combined with the plural countable noun.

Singular                   Plural

One dog                          Two dogs

One horse                       Two horses

One idea                         Two ideas

One shop                         Two shops

Example :

a.    he has two cat.

b.    How many money do you have?

2.  Uncountable Nouns

Uncountable nouns are for the things that we can’t with numbers. They may be the names for abstract ideals or quantity or for physical objects that are too small or too amorphous to be counted (liquids, powders, gases, etc.) Uncountable nouns are used with a singular verb. They usually do not a plular form.

          Examples :

a.    Sugar

b.    Water

c.    Tea

d.    Rice

e.    Knowledge

f.    Beauty

g.    Anger

h.    Fear

i.     Love

j.     Money

k.    Research

l.      Safety

m.   Evidence

We can’t use a/an with these nouns. To express a quantity of an uncountable noun, use a word or expression like some, a lot of, much, a bit of, a great deal of, or else use an exact measurement like a cup of, a bag of, 1kg of, a handful of, a pinch of, an hour of, a day of. If you want to ask about the quantity of an uncountable noun, you ask “How much?”

Example :

1.     How much water do you want ?

2.    Can you give me some information about uncountable nouns ?

Tricky spots

Some nouns are countable in other languages but uncountable in English. They must follow the rules for uncountable nouns. The most common ones are :

-      Accommodation

-      Advice

-      Baggage

-      Behavior

-      Bread

-      Furniture

-      Information

-      Luggage

-      News

-      Progress

-      Traffic

-      Travel

-      Trouble

-      Weather

-      Work

Example :

1.     I would like to give you some advice.

2.    How much bread should I bring?

3.    I didn’t make much progress now.

4.    This looks like a lot of trouble to me

5.    We did an hour of work yesterday.

Be carefull with the noun hair which is normally uncountable in English, so it is not used in the plural. It can be countable only when referring to individual hairs.

Example :

1.     She has long blond hair.

2.    I washed my hair yesterday.

Bersumber :

http://www.edufind.com/english-grammar/countable-and-uncountable-nouns/