Countable and uncountable nouns
grammar rules

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Countable and uncountable nouns

Grammar rules with examples.

Countable nouns

Countable nouns are people, places, animals or things that we can count.

Regular: a girl - two girls, a lion - two lions, a book - two books
Irregular: a man - three men, a person - five people, a sheep - five sheep

Uncountable nouns

Uncountable nouns (or mass nouns) are things, substances, abstract ideas or qualities that we cannot normally count.

money, rice, water, anger, knowledge, safety

Nouns that are both countable and uncountable

Some nouns can be both countable and uncountable but they have a different meaning.

hair = hair on your head / hairs = animal hairs
paper = material / papers = newspapers
chicken = kind of meat / chickens = animals

How to make uncountable nouns countable

We combine special words (piece words) with uncountable nouns to make them countable.

information - two pieces of information, luck - a bit of luck, furniture - two items of furniture, paper - a sheet of paper

List of uncountable nouns

  • The most common uncountable nouns in alphabetical order.

Video tutorial

  • A 22-minute video by native speaker explaining the difference (intemediate or higher levels).

Exercises on countable and uncountable nouns:

Countable and uncountable nouns exercises

  • PDF worksheets to download
  • online exercises with answers

See also:

English nouns Countable and uncountable nouns, singular and plural nouns, group nouns, compound nouns and proper nouns.

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