What is the difference between countable nouns and uncountable nouns?

As mentioned before, a noun is a word that represents a person, a place, a thing, or an idea. There are many different kinds of nouns, and two of those types are countable nouns and uncountable nouns. These are also referred to as as count nouns or uncount/non-count nouns.

Countable Noun (Count Noun)

A countable noun is a type of noun that can have a plural form. Countable nouns can differ in numerical quantity, and can be used with ‘how many?’ questions.

How do you make the plural form?

Most nouns follow a standard rule to make the plural form. These are known as regular plural nouns. They often add an ‘s’, ‘es’, or they change the last ‘y’ to ‘i’ and add ‘es’.

Singular	Plural
cat	cats
box	boxes
city	cities

Some nouns do not follow the regular rules. They do not simply add an ‘s’ or ‘es’ to make the plural form. These are irregular plural nouns.

Singular	Plural
knife	knives
cactus	cacti
goose	geese
moose	moose (no change!)

Some of the first nouns that students learn are irregular plural nouns.

Singular	Plural
person	people
child	children
man	men
women	women

Uncountable Noun (Uncount Noun)

An uncountable noun is a type of noun that does not have a plural form. Uncountable nouns refer to things that we can’t generally count, or would not normally count, and they can be used with ‘how much?’ questions.

There is no definitive rule for classifying uncountable nouns. However, many of them fall under these categories:

Category	Examples
Liquids	water, oil, milk, mud
Gases	helium, oxygen, CO2
Materials	wood, plastic, concrete
School subjects	history, Spanish, PE
Intangible things	information, leadership, relaxation
Too numerous to count	equipment, rice, sand

Can nouns be countable and uncountable?

Here lies one of the first problems that learners have with English. A noun can be countable or uncountable depending on how it is used.

Food and Drink

Many different kinds of food and drink are both countable and uncountable, and these are some of the first words that students learn. For example, when you talk about ‘coffee’ or ‘ice cream’ in a general sense, they are uncountable. When you talk about a single serving or portion, they are countable.

Uncountable Example	Countable Example
Coffee is popular in Europe. (We are talking about coffee in a general sense.)	I’ll have four large coffees, please. (=cups of coffee)
My friends love eating ice cream.	I decided to have two ice creams because they were so delicious. (=servings of ice cream)

‘Types of’ or ‘Kinds of’

We consider other uncountable nouns as countable when we mean ‘types of’ or ‘kinds of’ something.

Countable Example	Uncountable Example
They drank wine last night.	You can choose from over 10 wines on our menu. (=different kinds of wine)
Our cheese is made fresh every day.	These are excellent cheeses. (=different kinds of cheese)

Different Meanings

Sometimes the nouns can be considered to be countable or uncountable depending on the meaning.

Countable Example	Uncountable Example
There is a long hair growing out of my arm. (just one hair)	I want to color my hair. (the hair on one’s head)
Did you read the paper? (newspaper, or document written on a topic)	The printer ran out of paper. (paper used for printing or writing)
The light stopped working. (one light in a room)	There wasn’t enough light to take a picture (light from the environment)
Skydiving was an exciting experience. (one event)	I need more work experience. (experience in a subject or field)

Plural Only Nouns

Some nouns are always used in the plural form. Sometimes they can be counted, but you need to use phrases such as ‘a pair of’ or ‘two pairs of’.

Noun	Example
pants	I am wearing blue pants.
jeans	Levi’s jeans are quite popular.
shorts	I like those yellow shorts.
clothes	Jim packed all his clothes in one suitcase.
sunglasses	These are my favorite sunglasses.
glasses	I need to wear glasses when I read.
scissors	Use scissors to cut the paper.

Why is this so confusing?

Both teaching and learning the concept of countable nouns and uncountable nouns can be difficult. The primary reason is that this concept may not exist in the student’s mother tongue (L1). Languages such as Japanese, Chinese, and Thai use classifiers with nouns to determine quantity.

Learn about other kinds of nouns

There are several categories of nouns, and nouns can fall under more than one category. Some of the other categories include common and proper nouns, concrete and abstract nouns, compound nouns, and collective nouns.

Noun
(bicycle, Mary, idea)

Proper Noun
(Paris, Mary, Toyota)

Common Noun
(city, woman, car)

Countable Noun
(table, pencil, house)

Uncountable Noun
(water, sand, knowledge)

Abstract Noun
(freedom, kindness)

Concrete Noun
(book, tree)

Collective Noun
(family, team, class)

Compound Noun
(football player, hot dog, handbag)

Let us know what you think!

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