3. Introduction
• Swan, M (1980) defines a countable noun as
“a noun like car, dog, idea which can have a
plural form and can be used with the indefinite
article a/an.
• Swan, M (1980) defines a uncountable noun
as
• “a noun which has no plural form and cannot
normally be used with the article a/an for
example mud.”
4. Main aspects and important features
• Countable nouns are nouns which have
singular and plural forms.
• Singular nouns name one person, place, thing
or idea
• For example : my dogs are hungry
• They can be counted for example 1 car, 2 cars
or 3 cars
5. Main aspects and important features
Uncountable nouns are substances, concepts
etc. that cannot be divided into separate
elements. They can not be counted.
Examples:
• music, art, love, happiness
• advice, information, news
• Non-countable nouns cannot be counted
e.g. you cannot say ‘1 water’, ‘2 waters’
etc
6. • “when learning a new noun you should make
a note of whether it is countable or
uncountable as we use different words with
countables and uncountables.”
• www.learnenglish.britishcouncil.org
7. Positive and Negative sentences
• When creating positive sentences we can use
a, an or some (with a plural verb form)
• E.g There is a cat in the garden
• There are some birds in the trees
• When creating negative sentences we can use
a, an or any (with a plural verb form)
• E.g Are there any chairs in the garden?
8. Suggested teaching contexts and
activities
• Students can complete an activity where they
group together the uncountable and
countable nouns- using pictures and a table
• They can do a gap fill activity
• The context can be shopping
• Students can bring in items from home
• Listening activity- What do they want to buy?
• Create a shopping list of countable and
uncountable nouns
• Role play exercise using cue cards
