Uncount Nouns
An uncount noun has no plural form.
We can only talk about quantity, not number.
and all of these have a singular noun.
We do not say milks.
We can only talk about quantity, not number.
some milk
some more milk
some more milk
a lot of milk
a glass of milk
a glass of milk
a litre of milk
etc
etc
and all of these have a singular noun.
We do not say milks.
Common uncount nouns
advice
furniture
machinery
traffic
furniture
machinery
traffic
accommodation
homework
money
luggage
homework
money
luggage
baggage
knowledge
news
equipment
knowledge
news
equipment
Some common nouns in English like information are uncount nouns even though they have plurals in other languages:
⁕ Let me give you some advice.
⁕ How much luggage have you got?
If we want to make these things countable, we use expressions like:
⁕ Let me give you a piece of advice.
⁕ That's a useful piece of equipment.
⁕ We bought a few bits of furniture for the new apartment.
⁕ She had six separate items of luggage.
However, accommodation, money and traffic cannot be made countable in this way. We need to use other expressions:
I've lived in three apartments. ✓
bits of accommodation ✗
Smith received three large sums of money. ✓
pieces of money ✗
We got stuck in two traffic jams. ✓
pieces of traffic ✗
⁕ Let me give you some advice.
⁕ How much luggage have you got?
If we want to make these things countable, we use expressions like:
a piece of ...
pieces of ...
pieces of ...
a bit of ...
bits of ...
bits of ...
an item of ...
items of ...
items of ...
⁕ Let me give you a piece of advice.
⁕ That's a useful piece of equipment.
⁕ We bought a few bits of furniture for the new apartment.
⁕ She had six separate items of luggage.
However, accommodation, money and traffic cannot be made countable in this way. We need to use other expressions:
I've lived in three apartments. ✓
bits of accommodation ✗
Smith received three large sums of money. ✓
pieces of money ✗
We got stuck in two traffic jams. ✓
pieces of traffic ✗
Some nouns in English are uncount nouns. We do not use uncount nouns in the plural and we do not use them with the indefinite article a • an:
We ate a lot of food. ✓
foods ✗
We bought some new furniture. ✓
furnitures ✗
That's useful information. ✓
a useful information ✗
We can use some quantifiers with uncount nouns:
He gave me some useful advice.
They gave us a lot of information.
Uncount nouns often refer to
Substances:
food, water, wine, salt, bread, iron
Human feelings or qualities:
anger, cruelty, happiness, honesty, pride
Activities:
help, sleep, travel, work
Abstract ideas:
beauty, death, fun, life
More Lessons ☛ Here
We ate a lot of food. ✓
foods ✗
We bought some new furniture. ✓
furnitures ✗
That's useful information. ✓
a useful information ✗
We can use some quantifiers with uncount nouns:
He gave me some useful advice.
They gave us a lot of information.
Uncount nouns often refer to
Substances:
food, water, wine, salt, bread, iron
Human feelings or qualities:
anger, cruelty, happiness, honesty, pride
Activities:
help, sleep, travel, work
Abstract ideas:
beauty, death, fun, life
More Lessons ☛ Here