Hello everyone, this is Andrew at Crown Academy of English. Today the lesson is about countable and uncountable nouns. So let's start.
So we are going to start with an exercise. So here are some photographs of some foods with a number on each photograph.
And here is a list of words. And so the exercise is - I want you to put the number of the photograph, of the correct photograph in front of the word.
So for example "tea" - Which number is "tea"? Well it is this one so we put number five in front of the word.
Alright? So I would like you to do the rest for all of the other words.
Okay? So if you want to pause, then you can pause now and then we will go through the answers together in a few seconds.
Alright, so let us look at the answers together. So "pasta" - "pasta" is here, number three.
"chocolate" - Where is chocolate? Well here it is.....
number one.
"cheese" is....
number eight.
"bananas"...
number six.
"apples"...
number seven.
"carrots"....
number two.
and of course strawberries... number four.
Alright, so those are the answers and now I have some more questions for you.
So which list has plural nouns in it? List A or list B?
So is list A... are these plural nouns? Or is it list B? Are these plural nouns?
Well of course the answer is list B. These are all plurals because there is a letter "s" at the end.
And list A in fact, all of these nouns are singular.
Next question: Can we count cheese? Can we count it?
Well the answer is no we cannot. We do not say one cheese, two cheeses, three cheeses.
No because cheese is just a big mass of product, of substance. It is not individual. So we cannot count cheese.
Can we count carrots?
Well the answer is yes of course. We can say one carrot, two carrots, three carrots...
because carrots are individual objects. They are separate. So we can count them.
And in fact, that is the rule which separates a noun from being either countable or uncountable.
And so, the list A, list A, all of these words are uncountable nouns.
We cannot count tea, for example. We do not say "one tea, two teas..."
And it is the same for "pasta". We do not say "one pasta, two pastas..."
But list B... all of these we can count. They are separate. Okay?
So uncountable nouns and countable nouns.
Let's look at countable nouns in more detail.
The definition is: A countable noun is a separate object or people, a person or maybe a concept. But the important thing is they are separate.
And we can count countable nouns. That is the definition because they are separate. One banana, two bananas
Some common examples of countable nouns: dog, apple, chair, house, plate, sandwich, television and many more.
Countable nouns - They are very easy to identify because they are all separate and individual objects. Okay so it's quite easy to identify a countable noun.
And very important - Countable nouns have both a singular and a plural form. They can exist in the singular and plural.
So "The apple is very nice." We are talking about one apple.
Apple is in the singular form here. There is no "s"
And very very important - Since the noun is singular, then the verb must be singular as well. So "is" This is the third person singular of the verb "to be".
And in the plural. So countable nouns can also have a plural. Here we are talking about several apples.
So we add an "s" to make the plural and the verb "to be" is in the third person plural.
And with countable nouns, we can use the article "a" or "an" when we use the singular.
"I have an apple". So we are talking about one apple. It is singular and so we can use the word "an".
And we say "AN" with an "n" because the noun starts with a vowel.
Another example - "He served me a sandwich." And this time we just say "a" because the noun does NOT start with a vowel.
And we can also use the word "some" when we use the countable noun in the plural.
So if we want several chairs, we say "Can I have some chairs?". "Chairs" is in the plural and we say "some"
But if we only want one chair, if chair is singular, then we do NOT use the word "some"
If we want one chair, we would say "Can I have a chair?" "a chair" - The letter "a"
Now let us look at uncountable nouns. This is more difficult. Uncountable nouns are a bit more difficult to identify.
The definition is that uncountable nouns are names of materials, liquids, concepts, collections or mass objects without boundaries.
And of course, we cannot count uncountable nouns because they are not separate objects. It is impossible to count.
Some examples: sugar, butter, rice, pasta, salt, bread, milk, liquid (sorry!) milk, water.
So you can see, often they are liquids or like a powder.
That sort of thing. Something which has no boundaries to it. Something which is a large mass.
And very very important is the rule that uncountable nouns only have a singular form.
Only have a singular form. And since the noun is only singular we must only use a singular verb. Very very important.
Example: "The pasta is very nice."
It is only singular, so the verb must be singular.
We do NOT say "The pasta are very nice." That is wrong. Here, the verb is plural but the noun is singular. So this is wrong.
And this is wrong too because here, we have said "pastas". We have put pasta in the plural.
But we have said that uncountable nouns only have a singular form. So this is wrong.
We cannot use the article "a" or "an".
We must not say "Can I have a pasta?" That is wrong.
"He served me a pasta." That is wrong.
But we can use the word "some".
"Can I have some pasta?" That is correct. So pasta always stays singular but we can use the word "some" before it.
"He served me some pasta." That is correct.
Ok? So that is the definition for uncountable nouns and that is very important, particularly the rule about being singular.
I'm going to give you a list of common uncountable nouns, alright?
I don't have time to read them all for you but look in a dictionary for the meaning of these words
and remember that they are all uncountable nouns and so they follow the rules that I showed you earlier.
I have put three of these in red and that is because they often cause confusion to people.
Because in English, "advice", "information" and "news" - They are all uncountable.
But in other foreign languages, for example French, these words, they are countable.
Alright? But in English, they are uncountable.
For example, in English, we would say "He gave me some good advice." That is correct. Advice is singular.
We do not say "He gave me some good advices." That is wrong in English.
Also we say "Can I have some information?"
We do not say "Can I have an information?" We do not use the word "a" or "an" with uncountable nouns.
And we say "The news is good." Ok?
"news" is always singular in English. So even though there is an "s" at the end, it is singular.
We do not say "The news are good." In English, that is wrong. That is a big mistake.
This list here is just a few examples. There are many many more examples. Ok?
Important to understand that there are some nouns which are in both categories, which are both countable and uncountable.
For example, the word "chocolate".
In some situations, if we are talking about a box chocolates, like here on the photograph. A box of small individual chocolates.
Then there are lots of separate chocolates. "chocolate" in this example is countable.
So we say "Do you want a chocolate?"
But in a different situation, in a situation where we are talking about a bar of chocolate like here, then that is different.
This time, it is a mass of chocolate. It is not separate. "Chocolate" in this example is uncountable.
And we say "Do you want some chocolate?" We treat it like an uncountable noun.
Okay so when you learn new nouns, it is important to decide and to learn if the noun is countable or uncountable or both. Sometimes it is both.
And sometimes we can use uncountable nouns like a countable noun.
Example "water"
Water is a liquid. It is an uncountable noun because it is a liquid. We cannot count water.
We say "Do you want some water?"
We do not say "Do you want a water?" I have already explained that. You already understand that.
BUT there is an exception.
For example, if we are talking about a glass of water, then we can say: "Do you want a glass of water?"
That is alright. That is ok.
And it is because "glass" is a countable noun. However "water" still is uncountable.
So if we have an uncountable noun like water,
we can transform the sentence into a countable sentence if we add a word like "glass" or another word which is a measure of something or a portion of something.
And there are many examples of this. For example "bowl of rice", "slice of bread", "piece of cheese."
So rice, bread and cheese are all examples of uncountable nouns.
But if we add a word which describes the volume or a measure or a container or a quantity,
then if we do that, then the sentence becomes a countable sentence. Okay so that is important.
And finally, why is this important? Why is it important that you learn if a noun is countable or uncountable?
Well it is not just theory. It is very important because English grammar is different for countable and uncountable nouns. It is very different.
And I will explain those differences in grammar in my next video lessons.
So in my next lessons, I will explain words like "much" and "many", "some" and "any"
and you will see that these words are different for countable nouns and uncountable nouns.
Alright? So that will be the next lesson.
Alright, so that is the end of this lesson.
Here are two other videos which you might be interested in. This one is a listening lesson and this one is another grammar lesson.
Alright, that is the end of the lesson.
My name is Andrew at Crown Academy of English. Thank you for watching and I will see you next time. Bye bye :)