Countables and Uncountables

1. Uncountable-Countable Nouns

2. Uncountable Nouns
• Noncount nouns are those which usually
cannot be counted. Following are some
common examples:
• ◊ Certain food and drinks: bacon, beef, bread,
broccoli, butter, cabbage, candy, cauliflower,
celery, cereal, cheese, chicken, chocolate,
coffee, corn, cream, fish, flour, fruit, ice cream,
lettuce, meat, milk, oil, pasta, rice, salt, spinach,
sugar, tea, water, wine, yogurt

3. Uncountable Nouns
• ◊ Solid and granular substance: air, cement,
coal, dirt, gasoline, gold, paper, petroleum,
plastic, rain, silver, snow, soap, steel, wood,
wool, metal, cheese, sand, rice, sugar….
• ◊ Most abstract nouns: advice, anger, beauty,
confidence, courage, employment, fun,
happiness, health, honesty, information,
intelligence, knowledge, love, poverty,
satisfaction, truth, wealth, democracy…

4. Uncountable Nouns
• ◊ Areas of study: history, math, biology, etc.
• ◊ Sports: soccer, football, baseball, hockey, etc.
• ◊ Languages: Chinese, Spanish, Russian, English,
etc.
• ◊ Other: Clothing, equipment, furniture,
homework, jewelry, luggage, lumber, machinery,
mail, money, news, poetry, pollution, research,
scenery, traffic, transportation, violence,
weather, work

5. Uncountable Nouns
• ◊ Liquids and Gases: water, coffee, milk, air,
oxygen…
• ◊ Energy Words, Forces and Nature : electricity,
sunshine, radiation, heat, magnetism, snow,
rain, fog, thunder…
• ◊ School subjects: Economics, chemistry,
science, math, French…
• ◊ Grouped Concepts: fruit, money, food,
vocabulary, news, jewellery…

6. Uncountable & Countable Nouns with
Different Meanings
I need an iron to press my
shirt.
My grandma raises chickens.
An exercise in the book
We find ourselves in the
middle of the wood.
A glass of beer, please.
The hairs on my skin.
Countable Meaning UnCountable Meaning
Steel is made from iron.
Would you prefer chicken or
turkey?
Exercise is good for your body.
All the desks in here are made
of wood.
Glass does not conduct
electricity well.
She has got blonde hair.

7. Uncountable & Countable Nouns with
Different Meanings
Simon got a basketball for
Christmas.
My literature professor's cats
usually get their names from
Shakespeare's works.
A paper = newspaper
Those apples are real beauties.
How many rooms are there in
the house?
A cloth = fabric
Countable Meaning UnCountable Meaning
Basketball is played by teams
of five.
How was work today?
It is made of paper.
Beauty is in the eye of the
beholder.
There’s no room for you in the
car.
I need some clothes to wear.

8. Quantifiers with both Uncountable or
Countable Nouns
all some more a lot of enough
no any most lots of less
We have lots of time.
Joe has lots of friends.
I can't go out. I've got no money.
There was a lot of food but no drinks.

9. Quantifiers with both Uncountable or
Countable Nouns
We have loads of time.
Joe has plenty of friends.
She has got plenty of time.
There was heaps of food.
plenty of heaps of loads of tons of
a load of a load of

10. Quantifiers with Plural Nouns
I’ll be back in a couple of
minutes.
There were hundreds of
people at the meeting.
A number of researches are
expected to the meeting.
* a good many = a lot of
(not) many a great number of a large number of (a) few
several both neither fewer
a couple of hundreds of thousands of a number of

11. Quantifiers with Singular Noun
• I received a large
amount of feedback
from my survey.
a little a great deal of
a bit of a large amount of

12. Singular or Plural?
• All/ all the + plural/singular
- All the students have their own rooms.
• Every/each + singular noun
- Each painting is unique.
• Each of them/us + singular
- Each of them has their own room.
* We don’t use the/a/an before every/each.
• I’ve seen all his films NOT every his films.

13. Singular or Plural?
• Both + plural noun
• I like both pictures/both of the pictures.
• Neither/either + singular noun
- Neither picture is right for the room.
• Neither/either of + plural noun
- Neither of my parents speak/speaks German.
* After both (of) the verb is always positive and plural. We
don’t use both in negative structures.
- Both of these answers are wrong.
NOT: Both of these answers are not correct.

14. Singular or Plural?

15. Tips
* On either side of A and B means one of the
sides (A/B, A or B)
• Both sides of A and B (A+B)
• Neither and nor belong to the set of those negative
polarity items which can stand first in a sentence,
and trigger inversion, so that the verb or auxiliary
precedes the subject. Other examples are never,
nowhere, hardly, scarcely, rarely
- e.g. Rarely have I seen such a thing!

16. Tips
neutral formal
She hardly ever went
on holiday.
Hardly ever did she go
on holiday.
I had seldom seen so
many people out on
the streets.
Seldom had I seen so
many people out on the
streets.
Things are rarely as
bad as you think
they’re going to be.
Rarely are things as bad
as you think they’re
going to be.

17. Tips
- She did not have cracks on her side,
neither/nor was she beautiful.
- I am not going to Andy's party tonight.
Neither/nor is Susan. (Susan isn't going either)
- His family have never been on a holiday
abroad. Neither/nor have mine. (my family
haven't been either)

18. Irregular Plurals

19. Example Questions

20. Example Questions

21. Example Questions

22. Example Questions
• A number of +
plural noun
(always)
• The number of,
when it is used
as an
aritmethical
value, then it is
SINGULAR.

23. Example Questions
• While _______ people have weight to lose,
there are ________ who need to gain
weight.
a) either/all
b) much/a few
c) most/some
d) many/lots of

24. Example Questions
• While _______ people have weight to lose,
there are ________ who need to gain
weight.
a) either/all
b) much/a few
c) most/some
d) many/lots of
Cevap : C

25. Example Questions
• Before you resign, you should consider
_______ of the possibilities.
a) every
b) each
c) much
d) whole

26. Example Questions
• Before you resign, you should consider
_______ of the possibilities.
a) every
b) each
c) much
d) whole
Cevap : B

27. Example Questions
• __________ oil was spilled into the Red Sea
during the Gulf War.
a) A great sum of
b) A good deal
c) A large number of
d) A great many

28. Example Questions
• __________ oil was spilled into the Red Sea
during the Gulf War.
a) A great sum of
b) A good deal
c) A large number of
d) A great many
Cevap : A