Countable and Uncountable Nouns with free PDF

Gizeli Figueiredo
Feb 13, 2023
2 min read

English Grammar

Hi dear students,

Do you know that countable and uncountable nouns are related to the most common mistakes among English speakers?

In this article, you will understand

What countable and uncountable nouns are.
Some different types of countable and uncountable nouns.

In English grammar, words that refer to people, places, or things are called nouns. They can be classified in many ways.

One way to classify nouns is according to whether they can be counted or not.

Countable Nouns

A Countable Noun can be singular or plural. Example: book

We can say a book/ one book/ two books/some books/ a few books/ many books/ the book.

Examples:

A book is useful for people. (Not - Book is useful for people.)

We read many books.

Uncountable Nouns

An uncountable noun can be neither singular nor plural. Example: Water

Water can’t be counted.

You may say water/ some water/ a little water/a lot of water/ much water, but not two waters.

Nouns that are both countable and uncountable

A noun may be countable and uncountable at the same time. Their meanings or context will determine it.

Example:

Context:

I bought four tomatoes yesterday. (Countable)

There is some tomato on your shirt. (Uncountable)

Meaning:

We need to boost our memory. (Uncountable)

We have such great memories from that day. (Countable)

Magical Tip: When you study new words, and this word is a noun, it's a good idea to notice whether the noun is countable, uncountable, or both. In this way, you build vocabulary wisely.

Countable and Uncountable Nouns Examples

Some Nouns that are countable and uncountable

This is a very tricky topic, isn't it?

The secret to understanding whether a noun is countable or uncountable is studying the word with sentence examples and searching for information when needed.

Watch the video below about the word youth and download my free worksheet about plural nouns.

Is the word youth countable or uncountable?