-NOUNS :Countable + uncountable

The difference between countable and uncountable nouns.

Countable nouns can be counted (a/one book, two books, a lot of books), whereas uncountable nouns cannot (a/one news, two freedoms). Therefore, uncountable nouns only have singular forms and are followed by singular verbs. We should bear in mind that there are nouns which are uncountable in English but countable in other languages, and vice versa. When in doubt, one should always consult a dictionary. However, certain kinds of nouns are usually countable or uncountable in English

Countable Nouns

Countable nouns are easy to recognize. They are things that we can count. For example: "pen". We can count pens. We can have one, two, three or more pens.A noun can be countable or uncountable. Countable nouns can be "counted", they have a singular and plural form .

Uncountable Nouns

Uncountable nouns are substances, concepts etc that we cannot divide into separate elements. We cannot "count" them. For example, we cannot count "milk". We can count "bottles of milk" or "litres of milk", but we cannot count "milk" itself .Uncountable nouns (also called mass nouns or noncount nouns) cannot be counted, they are not seperate objects. This means you cannot make them plural by adding -s, because they only have a singular form. It also means that they do not take a/an or a number in front of them.

The notion of countable and uncountable can be confusing.

Some nouns can be countable or uncountable depending on their meaning. Usually a noun is uncountable when used in a general, abstract meaning (when you don't think of it as a separate object) and countable when used in a particular meaning (when you can think of it as a separate object).