Countable and uncountable nouns, quantifiers

Brief revision


Countable nouns have a singular and a plural form. In plural, these nouns can be used with a number
(that's why they are called 'countable nouns'). They can be singular or plural, eg. words like car,
book, chair.


Uncountable nouns can only be used in singular. These nouns cannot be used with a number (that's
why they are called 'uncountable nouns'). They are only singular, eg. words like petrol, rice,
water..


The following words are uncountable in English. They are normally only singular, and we cannot use

a / an with them.

advice  baggage  bread  furniture  hair  information  knowledge  luck  luggage  news  spaghetti
travel  work


Practice

A/ Circle the uncountable nouns.


cup  dog  flower  guitar  love  meat  music  ear  oil  photo  river  salt  snow  sugar  women  wool


B/ Put a with the countable nouns and some with the uncountable nouns.


…. bread, ….  cheque, …. baggage, …. fridge, …. furniture, …. handbag, …. holiday, …. knowledge, ….
luck, …. newspaper, …. problem, …. station, …. travel, …. work


Answer key:

A    love, meat, music, oil, salt, snow, sugar, wool

B   a cheque, a fridge, a handbag, a holiday, a newspaper, a problem, a station,


More practice on the website below. Read also the notes on your score!

http://perso.wanadoo.es/autoenglish/count.htm



Quantifiers

The most common quantifiers used in English are:

some / any ,  much, many, a lot, a few, several, enough

Go through the website and read about quantifiers.

http://linguapress.com/grammar/quantifiers.htm

More practical tasks on the websites:

http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/vocabulary/much-many


http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/vocabulary/little-few