Level: beginner
Substances as count or uncount nouns
Substances are usually uncount nouns:
Would you like some cheese?
Coffee keeps me awake at night.
Wine makes me sleepy.
but they can also be used as count nouns:
I'd like a coffee, please. = I'd like a [cup of] coffee.
May I have a white wine? = May I have a [glass of] white wine?
They sell a lot of coffees. = They sell a lot of [different kinds of] coffee.
I prefer white wines to red. = I prefer [different kinds of] white wine to red.
They had over twenty cheeses. = They had over twenty [types of] cheese.
This is an excellent soft cheese. = This [kind of] soft cheese is excellent.
- Substances as count or uncount nouns 1
- Substances as count or uncount nouns 2
Nouns with both a count and an uncount form
Some nouns have both a count and an uncount form. Their meanings are closely related:
George had hopes of promotion.
We should always have hope.
There's a danger of avalanches on the mountain.
Some people enjoy danger.
Level: intermediate
Nouns with two meanings
Some nouns have two meanings, one count and the other uncount:
Can I have a glass of water?
I cut myself on some glass.
Is English a difficult language?
Linguistics is the study of language.The Times is an excellent paper.
It's made of paper.
Other nouns like this are:
| business | industry | property | wood |
| power | time | work | hair |
- Nouns with two meanings 1
- Nouns with two meanings 2
Uncount nouns that end in –s
Some uncount nouns end in –s. They look like plural count nouns, but they are not.
Nouns like this generally refer to:
| Subjects of study: | mathematics, physics, economics, etc. |
| Activities: | gymnastics, athletics, etc. |
| Games: | cards, darts, billiards, etc. |
| Diseases: | mumps, measles, rabies, etc. |
Economics is a very difficult subject.
Billiards is easier than pool or snooker.
- Uncount nouns that end in –s
Hello Mussorie,
I'm afraid that sentence is not correct. As you point out, 'problem' is a count noun.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Mussorie,
You could say 'much of a problem', but not 'much problem', which is incorrect. If I've understood what the sentence is supposed to mean, I suppose I'd say 'I don't think there will be much of a problem with it'.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
As the LearnEnglish team have responded, the use of "much" in this sentence is incorrect as "much" can not be used for countable nouns, though the use of "much of a problem" is correct as "much of " something can be used for uncountable nouns, hope this clears the confusion.
Hi Kaisoo93,
Actually, both territory and territories are correct here. There a couple of things to be aware of:
Going back to your sentence, you can use territory and territories with pretty much the same meaning. But use territory if you mean it in an uncountable sense. Or, use territories to emphasise that each country possesses several territories.
I hope that helps :)
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Kaisoo93,
Yes, you could use accounts in the second sentence.
It's also fine to use account. It's true that one possible meaning is that all people share one account, but this is obviously unrealistic in this context, so readers/listeners would definitely understand it as having the other possible meaning: each person uses their own account for different purposes. Using account also has the benefit of keeping the reference consistent with account in the first sentence, so I would recommend that.
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Nevı,
This sentence has different chunks (parts) than what you are thinking. One chunk is 'I missed the metro' and another is 'home', which here is a short way of saying 'going home' or 'that goes to my home'. In other words, this person missed the last metro that they needed to take in order to get home that day.
We often use 'home' after a noun phrase like this. You could also say, for example, 'the bus home', 'a flight home', etc.
Hope this makes sense.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Nevı,
No, those are not correct -- you need to say 'the flight to London', 'the train to the stadium', etc.
The word 'home' is unusual and can be used adverbially without the preposition 'to' -- you can see an explanation of this on this page -- look for the paragraph beginning 'We use home as an adverb ...' and you'll see what I mean.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Claudia,
For industry, the countable and uncountable nouns have slightly different meanings. The uncountable noun means 'companies and activities that produce goods or services'. The countable noun is more specific. It means 'companies and activities that produce a specific good or service'. That's why it's countable here – it refers to a specific industry (rather than goods or service production in general).
Best wishes,
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello itspb008
Could you please tell me where on this page the things you are referring to are located? If they are not here, could you please give some examples of what you mean? We are happy to try to help you with grammar rules related to this topic, but we do ask that you make your questions specific, as it's quite difficult to answer such general questions.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello itspb008,
In your sentences, both one sugar and a bar of chocolate are countable, not uncountable.
Some nouns can be used as either countable or uncountable nouns. When we think of sugar as a substance which we weigh by the kilo, then it is uncountable. When we think of sugar as a something we add to coffee which can be measured in lumps or spoonfuls, then it can be countable. Another example would be coffee. The substance is uncountable, but we can say a coffee when we are talking about a cup of coffee, for example.
When we talk about industry as a concept (as a sector of the economy, for example) then it is uncountable. If we want to talk about particular kinds of industry (the constuction industry, the automobile industry, the tech industry etc) then we can use the word as a countable noun: some industries are coping better with the current situation.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi knownman,
I see! You're right, question 4 was showing the wrong answer. I've corrected it now. Thanks to you and itspb008 for noticing the mistake.
Question 10 is correct, as the question focuses only on chocolate (not on the whole phrase a bar of chocolate). Chocolate is uncount because it's a substance, not a unit of the substance. But a bar is a count noun, and so is a bar of chocolate (the phrase as a whole).
Best wishes,
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Aislin
Given no particular context, the forms that are correct here include: 'Tea is an evergreen plant', 'Tea plants are evergreen', 'A tea plant is evergreen' or 'The tea plant is evergreen' (or 'is an evergreen plant').
If you're speaking about tea plants in general, then the most commonly used form would probably be the second sentence I listed above.
Does that make sense?
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello learning,
Sentence 2 is generally considered the correct one, for the reason you state. But, as you note, sometimes you can see or hear sentences like 1, even when the meaning is that each person is only wearing one shirt and tie. I would encourage you to use the second version.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi YH,
The subject of 'lies' is 'assurance', which is the head of the noun phrase 'the assurance of independence and sovereignty for Singapore'. Since 'assurance' is grammatically singular, so is the verb.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi amol,
I'm afraid that sentence is not correct in standard British English with either 'order' or 'orders'. Perhaps you mean something like 'He will not work except under orders' or 'He will not work unless he is ordered to'?
'order' can be a noun as well as a verb. In my first sentence, it is a noun and in my second sentence it is a passive verb. I'd suggest you check the dictionary for more examples of how it is used.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi jiaojiaopeter,
We have a choice here of the indefinite article (a difficult marriage), the definite article (the difficult marriage) or the zero article (marriage).
We use the zero article when we are talking in general terms about marriage as a concept:
Note there is no adjective here (such as difficult) because the meaning is general and abstract.
We use the indefinite article when we are talking about one marriage, but are not identifying a particular marriage. In other words a marriage means one marriage - it's not important which one:
In your example, the phrase a difficult marriage tells us that there are many difficult marriages and we are talking about one example.
We use the definite article when we are referring to a particular example and both the speaker and the listener know which one it is.
You can read more about articles in this section (use the links on the right to go to particular pages) and on this page and this page.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi blessnick,
Yes, 'scissors' is always grammatically plural, even when we refer to just one of them. If you want to ask someone to pass you some, you could say 'Can I have some scissors?' or 'Can I have a pair of scissors?' or 'Can you pass the scissors?'
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Andrew,
'Trousers' is the subject, 'is' is the verb (a linking verb or copula) and 'a plural noun' is a subject complement. The reason a singular verb is used is that the sentence describes the word 'trousers' (it means 'the word trousers'), not the item which we wear.
Your sentence is not correct because 'trousers' is a plural noun here. You need to say 'Some new trousers are on sale'.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Andrew international,
'The sheep are black'. As for the sentence with equipment, I would say there is no plural form -- as you point out, how can you make something uncountable countable?
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi EnglishZenon,
It is possible to say 'the interesting property' here. The context is important.
The reason we usually say 'an' in this case (your instincts were good, of course) is as follows:
We use 'the' when we want to identify a particular thing within a group. For example:
The same distintion applies when an adjective is added:
In other words, 'the interesting property' would be a way of identifying a particular interesting property from other interesting properties, not a way of stating that one property alone is interesting.
The reason we can also say 'the interesting property' is that it could be a reformulation of 'the property which is interesting', which would identify a particular property in the sense of 'there are many properties, but only one has the characteristic of being interesting'. As I said above, context is key here because articles are related to the level of shared information between speakers.
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello SteveS,
I'm afraid I'm not sure what to recommend, in part because I don't understand exactly what that department's function will be. I'd suggest looking at websites of other companies in your sector to see what language is in use by your peers.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team