Uncountable Nouns can cause a lot of trouble in English becasuse you must learn the correct quantifier. Here you will learn Uncountable Nouns in less than 5 minutes.
What is an Uncountable Noun?
- Uncountable Nouns are indivisible objects. We can not count them.
- Water is an Uncountable Noun.
- Uncountable Nouns are usually in singular.
- The news starts at 9PM. (The news is uncountable and we need the verb ending in -s for 3rd person singular)
- Time flies when you’re having fun. (Time is uncountable, so we need the 3rd person singular again)
Quantifiers
- We can’t use ‘a’ or ‘an’ with uncountable nouns in English.
- To express the quantity, we can use the following expressions:
- a bit of
- some
- much
- a lot
- a great deal of
- For example:
- Would you like some wine?
- I’ll just have some water, please.
- We should always use a lot of sunscreen.
- There’s a great deal of smoke coming from that car.
Questions with Uncountable Nouns
- To ask about the quantity of an uncountable noun, we use ‘How much?’
- Do you have broccoli?
- How much would you like?
To express a quantity of Uncountable Nouns
- For the exact quantity, use
- a cup of
- a bag of
- 1kg of
- 1L of
- a handful of
- a pinch of
- a carton of
- a jug of, etc.
- For example:
- How much would you like?
- 1 kilo of broccoli, please.
- Mom, we need some milk.
- I just bought three cartons of milk yesterday.
Some common Uncountable Nouns in English
- Here are some example of uncountable nouns used in English:
- accommodation
- advice
- baggage
- behavior
- bread
- evidence
- furniture
- information
- luggage
- news
- progress
- traffic
- travel
- trouble
- weather
- work
‘a piece of’
- Some of these nouns can be used as countables using the phrase ‘a piece of’.
- a piece of advice
- 2 pieces of bread
- a piece of evidence
- 3 pieces of furniture
- a piece of information
- 6 pieces of luggage
- a piece of news
English Grammar
Now that you have learned about ‘Uncountable Nouns in less than 5 minutes’, take a look at our other English Grammar posts:
Countable Nouns
Como usar AT, IN y ON en menos de 5 minutos
