Understanding an Uncountable Noun (Definition, Examples, Countable Comparison)

What are countable and uncountable nouns? Nouns can identify places, people, animals, and other things. They are the basic materials required to construct sentences. There are different types of nouns, including proper nouns, common nouns, compound nouns, collective nouns, abstract nouns, and countable and uncountable nouns.

Each of these may have specific purposes. For instance, proper nouns help identify different objects by their names. Similarly, collective nouns represent groups.

Since nouns represent different things, they may also be countable and uncountable. Some items may be countable, and you can count them, whereas others may be beyond numbers.

Form	Example
Countable Noun	Coins, dogs, birds, apples.
Uncountable Noun	Bread, water, gold, rice.

Form	Definition
Countable Noun	The nouns that can be counted are called countable nouns.
Uncountable Noun (Mass Noun)	The nouns that cannot be counted, although they can be measured or weighed, are called uncountable nouns.

What is a Countable Noun?

As the name suggests, you can represent the different things around you that you can count with the help of countable nouns. So, be it places, animals, people, or anything else, there must be a definite number or quantifier.

For instance, ‘There may be at least ten candles on the birthday cake,’ or ‘There are several notable paintings in this gallery.’

Countable nouns may be singular or plural, depending on the context. For example, a book lay on the table,’ or ‘There are 5,000 employees in that company.’

Definition of Countable Noun

Countable nouns, or count nouns, are those nouns that go together with indefinite articles in the singular or plural forms.

Nouns that can be modified using quantities and occur in singular and plural forms, along with quantity determiners, are countable.

So, according to this definition, anything you can represent using a definite or indefinite quantity is a countable noun. Definite determiners are pure numbers. Indefinite denotations, however, can be used when you don’t know the numbers or quantities.

What is an Uncountable Noun?

Anything you cannot represent using a definite quantifier is an uncountable noun. In other words, uncountable nouns are those things that you cannot count.

For instance, ‘There is no water in the pond,’ or ‘Get rid of the garbage.’

Here, ‘water’ and ‘garbage’ are uncountable since a definite number or quantity cannot represent them.

Definition of an Uncountable Noun

In linguistics, uncountable nouns, mass nouns, or non-count nouns are distinguished forms of countable nouns with a syntactic property where the quantity may be an undifferentiated unit rather than a discrete element.

Here, ‘undifferentiated unit’ means that tracking the objects in question may not be possible.

Countable vs. Uncountable Nouns

The most apparent difference between countable and uncountable nouns is that you can represent countable nouns by a definite number or quantifier. In contrast, the same is not true of uncountable nouns. However, this is not the only difference.

Countable nouns vary from uncountable nouns, depending on various other factors. For instance, countable nouns can assume both singular and plural forms, as against uncountable nouns, which may be only in the singular form.

Likewise, when you express countable nouns in the interrogative format, the question would be ‘how many?’ instead of ‘how much?’ for uncountable nouns.

So, the numbers, or quantifiers, become significant when referring to something countable.

Examples of Countable and Uncountable Nouns

Uncountable nouns may include bread, rice, coffee, luggage, money, and information.

Some objects, including money, or luggage, can be counted but are still uncountable, as there is too much.

For instance, you may be able to count money, as currency notes but not in an economy, or bank.

Besides this, you can count most other things or at least represent them using a quantifier.

Uncountable nouns (list)

Alphabet	Uncountable Nouns
A	Aggression Assistance Attention Accommodation Advertising Air Athletics Access Adulthood Alcohol Applause Agriculture
B	Blood Botany Bacon Baggage Ballet Butter Biology
C	Carbon Cardboard Chalk Chess Coal Commerce Confusion Cookery Countryside Crockery Cutlery Chocolate
D	Determination Delight Depression Driving Dignity Dessert Design Dust Distribution Dirt Duty
E	Enjoyment Energy Envy Evil Engineering Entertainment Evolution Existence Ethics Evidence Employment
F	Fashion Forgiveness Faith Flour Flu Fear Fun Fame Freedom
G	Gasoline Genetics Garbage Growth Grief Grammar Garlic
H	Hospitality Homework Heat Hatred Hunger Honey
I	Ice Imagination Information Independence Infrastructure Industry Irony
J	Jealousy Jam Jewelry Joy
K	Kindness Knowledge Karate
L	Labour Lava Livestock Luggage Lightning Land Leather Linguistics
M	Management Mathematics Moonlight Methane Milk
N	Nature Nitrogen Nutrition Nonsense Nurture
O	Obedience Obesity Oxygen
P	Pepper Patience Permission Peace
Q	Quartz
R	Reliability Rum Recreation Reality Rubbish
S	Scenery Sewing Strength Space Software Seaside Stream
T	Toast Thunder Transportation Trust
U	Underwear Unemployment Unity
V	Veal Validity Vitality Vinegar
W	Whiskey Weather Wildlife Water Welfare
Y	Yoga Yeast
Z	Zinc

Conclusion

Most things are countable. You can still measure or represent them using a suitable quantifier, even if they are not. However, the terms used to describe the numbers or quantities may vary, depending on several factors, primarily if the amount or number is not overwhelming.

You can determine if a noun is countable by counting or measuring it.

So, most objects are still countable even if there are too many and you may not be able to count them.

FAQs

What are some rules governing uncountable nouns?

You can represent any object that you cannot count, doesn’t come in definite numbers, or quantifiers as an uncountable noun.

However, uncountable objects have only singular forms and no plurals and may need definite articles to support them.

For instance, when you say, ‘I picked up the luggage,’ you may be referring to any luggage. However, when you say, ‘I picked up my luggage,’ you are referring specifically to your bags.

Similarly, when you say, ‘I need to see a doctor,’ you may be referring to any doctor. However, when you say, ‘I need to see the doctor,’ you may be referring to a specific doctor.

When it comes to quantifiers, you may need to be more specific when representing countable nouns. For instance, when you say, ‘The citizens came to the meeting,’ it becomes generic and can refer to the citizens of any place.

However, when you say, ‘Some citizens from the neighborhood came to the meeting,’ you are referring to a specific set of people.

Likewise, there are quantifiers that you can use only with uncountable nouns.

For example, ‘There’s little food left.’

There are other quantifiers that you can use with both countable and uncountable nouns. Examples may include all, some, any, and other such words.

For instance, ‘He made enough money for a well-to-do living.’

How does subject-verb agreement affect uncountable nouns?

Uncountable nouns are always singular compared to countable nouns, which can be singular, or plural. However, some uncountable nouns assume plural forms although they are singular.

For example, when you say, ‘The furniture needs replacement,’ you may be referring to a set rather than a single chair or table.

Some nouns may seem plural but, in reality, are singular and may be hard to figure out. Examples include Mathematics or News.

For instance, when you say, ‘I’ve got some bad news,’ it can be challenging to determine whether ‘news,’ in this context, refers only to a single piece of information.

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About the author

Dalia Y.: Dalia is an English Major and linguistics expert with an additional degree in Psychology. Dalia has featured articles on Forbes, Inc, Fast Company, Grammarly, and many more. She covers English, ESL, and all things grammar on GrammarBrain.