This document discusses countable and noncountable nouns. Countable nouns can be pluralized and take determiners like "a" or "an", while noncountable nouns are mass nouns that cannot be counted or pluralized and usually do not take determiners. It provides examples of nouns that can be both countable and noncountable depending on whether they refer to individual instances or a mass/general concept, such as chicken, paper, time, hair, room, memory, and drinks like coffee and tea.

1. COUNTABLE AND
NONCOUNTABLE
NOUNS

2. Use of A/An/The
An  Initial vowel
• An apple
• An airplane
A  Initial consonant
• A book
• A kangaroo

3. Use of A/An/The
Pay attention to words beginning
with U and H.
• A university / An umbrella
• A house / An hour

4. Nouns can be:
Countable Non-countable
… we can count: cat,
woman, pencil, etc.
… we cannot count:
milk, safety, rice, etc.
• They have a plural
form
• They have no plural
• They can have “a,
an” or a number
before.
• Usually cannot have
“a, an” or a number
before.

8. Chicken
Countable: The animal
• We have ten cows and
fifteen chickens on our farm.
Uncountable: The food
• Would you like some chicken?

9. Paper
Countable: Individual documents
• I showed my papers to the immigration
agent.
Uncountable: Paper in general
• I need to buy some paper – our printer
is all out.

10. Time
Countable: Specific events, moments in
time
• We’ve been to Tokyo three times.
Uncountable: The general concept of time
• I didn’t have enough time
to finish reading the book.

11. Hair
Countable: Individual strands of hair
• The last time I was at that restaurant, I
found two hairs in my food!
Uncountable: Hair in general
• My sister has blonde hair.

12. Room
Countable: Specific places in a building.
• Our house has five rooms: the kitchen,
bedroom, bathroom, living room, and
family room.
Uncountable: “Room” meaning “space” in
general.
• I’ll make some room for these new books
in the bookshelf.

13. Memory
Countable: Specific objects or ideas.
• I have fond memories of the volleyball
games my friends and I used to play in
college.
Uncountable: The ability to remember (in
general)
• I have a terrible memory. I always forget
people’s names!

14. Coffee / Water / Beer / Tea / Soda
Countable: When asking for a specific
number of these drinks
• Could you bring us three coffees and
two herbal teas?
Uncountable: When talking about the
drink in general
• I drink a lot of coffee, but I don’t drink
very much beer.