Countable and uncountable nouns
Grammar rules with examples.
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 (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
- The most common uncountable nouns in alphabetical order.
- 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.