|
Understanding Noncount Nouns |
Today we are going to talk about the difference between
count and noncount nouns.
Most nouns in English can be counted. Think of the noun
shirt, as in, “I bought a shirt.” If you have more than
one shirt, you just add “s” to make it plural.
"I bought 10 shirts."
But a shirt is part of a larger category: clothing. You
can say “I bought three shirts” but you cannot say, “I
bought three clothings.” Clothing is a noncount noun.
You cannot use a, an, or a number before a noncount
noun.
Grammatically, a noncount noun is always singular, even
if it refers to multiple items like furniture, luggage,
or equipment.
A count noun in your native language might be a noncount
noun in English. For example, the Spanish translation
for homework (tarea) is a count noun. But homework is a
noncount noun in English. It would sound strange to say,
“I had three homeworks.” You could say, “I had a lot of
homework.”
You can also could say, “I had three homework
assignments.” In this example, homework is used as an
adjective. It describes assignment. You can count
assignments, but you cannot count homework.
There is no perfect rule to determine if a noun is count
or noncount. Fortunately, most noncount nouns fall into
a few categories.
Groups of similar things
Noncount nouns often refer to groups of similar objects.
Furniture, for example, is a noncount noun. Furniture is
a collection of similar countable items like chairs,
sofas, tables, shelves, beds and so on.
Luggage is also a noncount noun. You can count bags,
packages, and backpacks, but you cannot count luggage.
Other noncount nouns that refer to groups of similar
things include equipment, food, garbage, mail, money and
vocabulary.
Abstractions
Abstract words are noncount. These are words that refer
to ideas or qualities instead of physical objects or
events. Abstractions are usually things that you cannot
see: They only exist in the mind. For example: love,
hate, information, news, peace, music and art. There are
tens of thousands of abstract words.
Other types of noncount nouns
It is logical that particles -- things that come in very
small pieces -- are noncount nouns. It would be
difficult to count rice, corn, salt, sugar and dust.
The names of academic fields of study are noncount. Even
though physics, economics, and mathematics all end with
an s, they are singular noncount nouns. For example,
“Physics is difficult.”
Words related to nature and weather are often noncount,
such as rain, wind, snow, lightning, fire and air.
Words with count and noncount
meaning
A few words can be used as count and noncount nouns. But
the meaning changes a little bit. Let’s look at the word
glass. As a noncount noun, glass refers to the clear
material used to make windows. For example, “The lamp
was made of glass.”
As a count noun, glass refers to a drinking container
made of glass, as in “Could you bring me a glass of
water?”
The plural glasses has two meanings. It could refer to
more than one drinking container. “Please wash the
glasses.”
Glasses could also refer to spectacles, a pair of lenses
used to correct vision. “I have been wearing glasses
since I was a teenager.”
Coffee, along with other drinks, has a count and
noncount meaning. “Coffee is grown in Colombia” refers
to coffee as an agricultural product. “I’ll have a
coffee” refers to a single cup of coffee.
Making Noncount Nouns into Count
Nouns
There are a few very important words that make it
possible to count noncount nouns. Many food words are
noncount nouns. But if you are cooking, you need to
measure specific amounts of food.
A recipe for cookies might call for “2 cups of sugar, a
half-pound of butter, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla." Pound,
cup and teaspoon are examples of measure words that you
can use to make noncount nouns countable.
One of the most useful of these measure words is piece.
You cannot count information but you can count a piece
of information. Piece is a very useful word because it
can be used with both count and noncount nouns. For
example, you can have two pieces of pie or three pieces
of information. Listen to this song by Paul Young.
Every time you go away
You take a piece of me with you.
Here is a video of Paul Young singing Everytime You Go
Away.
Some of these measure words have poetic qualities to
them, such as: a grain of sand, a speck of dust, a bolt
of lightning, a flake of snow, and a breath of air.
Common mistakes
Let’s look at some common mistakes with noncount nouns.
Traffic might seem like a count noun. After all, it
refers to a lot of cars. But traffic is a noncount noun
in English. Vocabulary, hardware, information, music,
and advice are noncount nouns that English learners
often confuse for count nouns.
And let us not forget the most important noncount noun
of all: grammar. You cannot count grammar. But you can
count grammar rules.
I'm Jill Robbins.
I'm Rick Hindman.
Come on come on come on come on and
Take it!
Take another little piece of heart now baby
Break it!
Break another little piece of my heart I know you will
Have a ...
Have another little piece of my heart now baby
Adam Brock wrote this story for VOA Learning English.
Jill Robbins and Kathleen Struck were the editors. |
|
