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#Rule-27 Countable Nouns vs. Uncountable Nouns
Both concrete and abstract nouns can be either countable or uncountable, depending on what they name.
🌟 Countable Nouns:
Countable nouns (also known as count nouns) are, as the name suggests, nouns that can be counted as individual units.
Concrete countable nouns
Many concrete nouns are countable. Consider the following, for example:
- cup
- ambulance
- phone
- person
- dog
- computer
- doctor
Each of these can be considered as an individual, separable item, which means that we are able to count them with numbers—we can have one, two, five, 15, 100, and so on. We can also use them with the indefinite articles a and an (which signify a single person or thing) or with the plural form of the noun. For example:
- a cup – two cups
- an ambulance – several ambulances
- a phone – 10 phones
- a person – many people
Abstract countable nouns
Even though abstract nouns are not tangible, many of them can still be counted as separable units. Like concrete nouns, they can take a or an or can be made plural. For example:
- a conversation – two conversations
- an emergency – several emergencies
- a reading – 10 readings
- an aspiration – many aspirations
🌟 Uncountable Nouns
Uncountable nouns, on the other hand, are nouns that cannot be considered as separate units. They are also known as non-count or mass nouns.
Concrete uncountable nouns
Concrete nouns that are uncountable tend to be substances or collective categories of things. For instance:
• wood, smoke, air, water
• furniture, homework, accommodation, luggage
Uncountable nouns cannot take the indefinite articles a or an in a sentence, because these words indicate a single amount of something. Likewise, they cannot take numbers or plural forms because there cannot be multiple units of them. For example:
✖️ “I see a smoke over there.” (incorrect)
✔️ “I see (some*) smoke over there.” (correct)
✖️ “I don’t have furnitures.” (incorrect)
✔️ “I don’t have (any*) furniture.” (correct)
(*We often use the words some or any to indicate an unspecified quantity of uncountable nouns.)
However, uncountable nouns can sometimes take the definite article the because it does not specify an amount:
• “They’re swimming in the water.”
• “The homework this week is hard.”
Abstract uncountable nouns
A large number of abstract nouns are uncountable. These are usually ideas or attributes. For instance:
• love, hate, news*, access, knowledge
• beauty, intelligence, arrogance, permanence
(*Even though news ends in an “-s”, it is uncountable. We need this “-s” because without it, news would become new, which is an adjective.)
Again, these cannot take indefinite articles or be made plural:
✖️ “He’s just looking for a love.” (incorrect)
✔️ “He’s just looking for love.” (correct)
✖️ “She’s gained a great deal of knowledges during college.” (incorrect)
✔️ “She’s gained a great deal of knowledge during college.” (correct)
As with countable nouns, though, we can sometimes use the definite article the:
• “I can’t stand watching the news.”
• “Can you believe the arrogance he exhibits?”
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