COUNTABLE AND UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS

Look at the pictures below. What are  
                 they? What are the differences?

Yes. A is the picture of cakes and B is the picture of flour. How many flour can be seen in the picture?

Can you count how many cakes in the picture?

Nouns that can be counted are known as Countable Nouns.

                    * table, chair, suitcase, bag

Countable nouns can be singular or plural:

                    * My dog is playing.

                    * My dogs are hungry.

When a countable noun is plural, we can use it alone:

                    * I like oranges.

                    * Bottles can break.

Uncountable nouns are substances, concepts etc that we cannot divide into separate elements. For examples:

                   *rice, sugar, butter, water

We usually treat uncountable nouns as singular. We use a singular verb.

                   * This news is very important.

                   * Your luggage looks heavy.

The Countable and Uncountable Nouns can be expressed as below.

Countable Nouns	Uncountable Nouns
a                 any      an              a few     many        some         several    a lot of  plenty of                               a large number of	a little        some                         much           any     a great deal of                         a lot of                                        plenty of   a large amount of

Let’s try some exercises!                                                    

Pick out the correct answer.

1. There is (some, a lot of) sand on the beach.

2. She gave the children (a few, a little) sweets each.

3. (Several, A large number of) his cattle were lost last night.

4. He went into the forest to chop (some, a large amount of)   

     wood.

5. Mr Chin bought (many, a large amount of) toys for his son 

     yesterday.

6. (Some, A lot of) snow falls in Greenland.

7. Please add (a few, a little) oil into the frying-pan.

8. He planted (a great deal of, a lot of) fruit trees in his garden.

9. He gave me (some, a large amount of) time to think over the 

     matter.

10.Put (some, a great deal of) ice into the glass.

Let’s now check the answers:

1. fo tol a                 2. wef a               3. fo rebmun egral a                     

4. emos                    5. ynam               6.   fo tol a   

7. elttil a                  8. fo tol a            9. emos               10. emos