Hello, guys.
Welcome back to this English course on nouns.
In this video, I’m going to tell you about countable and uncountable nouns.
It’s very important to know the difference between countable and uncountable nouns in
English.
And students often get confused.
So please listen to me very carefully.
Let’s get started.
Countable nouns are nouns that you can count.
Uncountable nouns are nouns that you cannot count.
They’re usually a type or a group.
And they’re always singular.
Let’s look at a few examples.
Countable nouns – you can say, “a dog.”
You can say, “one dog,” “two dogs,” “three dogs,” and so on.
“Man.”
You can say, “a man.”
“Two men.”
“Idea.”
You can say, “one idea,” “two ideas,” and so on.
“Computer.”
Again, you can say, “one computer, two computers.”
And, “house.”
Well, you can say, “one house, two houses, three houses,” and so on.
These are countable nouns.
You can count them.
But if we look at uncountable nouns.
When you say, “water.”
You can’t say, “One water, two waters.”
It doesn’t make any sense.
You cannot count water.
Same goes for air.
You can’t say, “one air, two airs.”
It’s just ‘air’.
It’s uncountable.
‘traffic’ ‘English’
‘Equipment’ These are all uncountable nouns.
You cannot count them And they’re always singular.
Okay, guys.
Now, let’s take a closer look at rules with countable nouns and uncountable nouns.
So how do we know if a word is countable or uncountable?
Well there are a few tricks that can help.
Let’s look at these words.
Some groups of words are very often uncountable.
And this can help you.
For example, liquids.
Water, juice, milk, beer.
All those words are uncountable.
Powders.
Sugar, flour, salt, rice.
Uncountable words as well.
Materials.
Such as wood, plastic, metal, or paper.
Food as well.
Like fruit, meat, cheese, and bread.
And finally, abstract ideas.
Like time, information, love, and beauty.
Another trick is that most of the time, you can measure uncountable nouns.
Let’s look at examples.
For example, if we take liquids.
I have two liters of milk.
Now, you cannot count milk.
But you can measure milk.
And you can count liters.
So you can say, “I have two liters of milk.”
You can say, “I have a glass of water.”
Or “I have glasses of water.”
“Cups of coffee.”
“Bottles of water.”
So you can measure this uncountable noun.
Same goes with powders.
“I have one kilogram of sugar.”
“Two kilograms of sugar.”
With materials and foods, we often use the word, ‘piece’.
For example, “I ate two pieces of cake.”
Or bread.
Or pizza.
Or meat.
Or cheese.
“I need pieces of paper.”
Wood.
Plastic.
Metal.
Or “I have some water.”
‘Some’ is an article that always works with uncountable nouns.
Ok guys, I hope you understand.
Let’s move on.
Some words can be both countable and uncountable nouns.
Now not all of them.
But some of them.
Let’s take a look.
“I would like to eat some cake.”
“I would like two pieces of cake.”
So in these two sentences, ‘cake’ is obviously and uncountable noun.
But if I say, “I would like to eat two cakes.”
Suddenly, it becomes a countable noun.
Why?
Because in the first two sentences, we are talking about pieces of one cake.
In the last sentence, we are considering the whole cake.
So it becomes countable.
Another example.
“I would like to eat some chicken.”
“I would like to eat a piece of chicken.”
Both sentences, uncountable noun, ‘chicken’.
But the last sentence, “I see two chickens.”
Hmm, ‘chicken’, in this case, is a countable noun.
Why?
Because in the first two sentences, ‘chicken’ is food.
But in the last sentence, ‘chicken’ is an animal.
So the animal is a countable noun.
‘Chicken’ as food is uncountable.
Hope you get it.
Let’s move on to example sentences now.
Let’s now review a few example sentences, so you can practice using countable and uncountable
nouns.
Please repeat after me.
And be careful to use proper pronunciation.
Let’s get started.
First sentence guys.
“I put one hundred candles on six cakes.”
Please repeat after me.
“I put one hundred candles on six cakes.”
Good job.
Second example.
“I ate two pieces of cake.”
Please repeat after me.
“I ate two pieces of cake.”
Next sentence.
“I saw some trash on all the streets.”
Please repeat after me.
“I saw some trash on all the streets.”
Very good.
Next one.
“I need to buy some milk and some butter from the market.”
Please repeat after me.
“I need to buy some milk and some butter from the market.”
And finally.
“Traffic and pollution are problems in many cities.”
Repeat after me.
“Traffic and pollution are problems in many cities.”
Good job guys.
I hope you repeated after me and worked on your pronunciation.
Thank you for watching this video.
I hope you now have a better understanding of countable and uncountable nouns.
I know it’s hard, but don’t worry, keep practicing.
Practice makes perfect.
Thank you for watching my video and please watch the rest of the videos.
Thank you guys for watching my video.
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Thank you very much and see you.
And do it.
Countable nouns are nouns that you can count.
Ok, so for example, if you say ‘a dog’, you can say, “a dog, one dog, two dogs,
three dogs.”
You can count them.
Uncountable nouns…
Stop, you gotta slow down.
Ahh, sorry.
Why am I going so fast?
Slow down.
Take your time.
Make it a good video.
Okay.
Countable nouns are nouns that you can count.