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Table of contents

What are uncountable nouns?

What are countable nouns?

Quantifiers

Quantifiers used with countable nouns only

Quantifiers used with ucountable nouns only

Quantifiers used with both countable and uncountable nouns

Board game

What are uncountable nouns?

Uncountable nouns are things we cannot count one by one. We do not use the articles a or an before them. In addition, they do not have plural forms. We use words like some, much, a little, or a lot of before uncountable nouns. For example, we do not say a water, three rices, or two advices because we cannot count them with numbers like one, two, or three. They are seen as a whole or a mass, not as individual items. So instead of using numbers, we use quantifiers to quantify them. For example, we say some water, a little rice, or a piece of advice.

List of uncountable nouns in English
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Examples:

  1. I need some water.
  2. She put a little sugar in her coffee.
  3. We listened to a lot of music at the concert.
  4. He has a lot of information about the project.
  5. We don’t have much information on that.
  6. They bought new furniture for their house.
  7. There is a lot of traffic during rush hour.
  8. We don’t have much time to finish the homework.
  9. I don’t have much patience for long meetings.
  10. Is there much interest in the event?
  11. She hasn’t made much progress on her work.

Below is a non-exhaustive list of uncountable nouns.

  1. advice
  2. air
  3. bread
  4. courage
  5. equipment
  6. electricity
  7. evidence
  8. furniture
  9. garbage
  10. grass
  1. hair
  2. help
  3. homework
  4. ice
  5. information
  6. knowledge
  7. love
  8. luck
  9. luggage
  10. mail
  1. money
  2. music
  3. news
  4. oil
  5. paper
  6. pasta
  7. progress
  8. rain
  9. research
  10. rice
  1. sand
  2. scenery
  3. space
  4. sugar
  5. time
  6. traffic
  7. violence
  8. water
  9. weather
  10. work

What are countable nouns?

Countable nouns can be counted as individual items. They have singular and plural forms. For example, we can say one apple, two apples, three chairs, or five books. We can also use words like many, a few, several, or a lot of with countable nouns. For example, we can say a few bananas, many students, or several emails.

Below is a non-exhaustive list of countable nouns.

  1. apple
  2. bag
  3. car
  4. desk
  5. egg
  6. fork
  7. glass
  8. house
  9. jacket
  10. key
  1. lamp
  2. mirror
  3. notebook
  4. orange
  5. pen
  6. quilt
  7. ring
  8. spoon
  9. table
  10. umbrella
  1. vase
  2. watch
  3. chair
  4. yoghurt
  5. zipper
  6. box
  7. cup
  8. door
  9. envelope
  10. fridge
  1. glove
  2. hat
  3. iron
  4. window
  5. kettle
  6. shoe
  7. mug
  8. napkin
  9. pencil
  10. plate

Quantifiers

In English, we use quantifiers to talk about the amount or number of something. Some quantifiers are used only with countable nouns, while others are used only with uncountable nouns. Below are tables summarising the use of quantifiers for each type of noun, along with examples to help you understand how they work.

Quantifiers used with countable nouns only

Quantifier Usage Examples
a/an Use a or an for singular countable nouns.
  • a book
  • an apple
some Use some for plural countable nouns in positive sentences.
  • some books
  • some apples
any Use any for plural countable nouns in negative sentences and questions.
  • Are there any books?
  • I don’t have any apples.
many Use many for plural countable nouns to indicate a large quantity.
  • many books
  • many apples
few / a few Use few for a small quantity, or a few for a slightly larger (but still small) quantity.
  • few friends
  • a few ideas
several Use several to indicate an unspecified but moderate quantity.
  • several books
  • several apples
a number of Use a number of to indicate an unspecified quantity.
  • a number of books
  • a number of apples
a lot of / lots of Use a lot of or lots of for plural countable nouns to indicate a large quantity.
  • a lot of books
  • lots of apples

Quantifiers used with ucountable nouns only

Quantifier Example
a little We need a little sugar.
much There isn’t much water in the bottle.
a bit of Can I have a bit of advice?
a great deal of She has a great deal of experience.
less You should eat less salt.

Quantifiers used with both countable and uncountable nouns

Quantifier Countable Uncountable
some I saw some birds. I need some milk.
any Do you have any pens? Is there any butter left?
no There were no emails today. There is no time to waste.
a lot of We saw a lot of tourists. I drank a lot of water.
lots of She has lots of books. He has lots of energy.
plenty of There are plenty of chairs. We have plenty of juice.
enough We have enough pencils. Do you have enough sugar?

Board game

A board game to practice countable and uncountable nouns with quantifiers such as a/an, some, any, much, many, and a lot of.
A board game to practice using countable and uncountable nouns in sentences
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Follow the instructions below to play the board game.

  1. Form groups of four or five players.
  2. Each player takes turns rolling the dice and moving their token accordingly.
  3. When you land on a square, create a positive sentence (+), a negative sentence (–), or a question (?) using the words provided.
  4. Be sure to include the quantifiers we've studied: a/an, some, any, a lot of, much, and many.
  5. The group that first reaches the last square wins the game.
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