COUNTABLE/UNCOUNTABLE Countable nouns are nouns that you can count. Because you can count them, you can have a singular and plural noun. A singular noun gets “a” or “an”. A plural noun is changed from the singular noun somehow: Normally, just add “s” (bird – birds, door – doors) If it ends with “-s”, “-ch”, “-sh”, “-x” “-z” or “-o” add “e” before “s” (dress – dresses, witch – witches, wish – wishes, fox – foxes, quiz – quizzes, tomato – tomatoes)

COUNTABLE/UNCOUNTABLE A plural noun is changed from the singular noun somehow: If it ends with “consonant + y”, change “y” to “i” before adding “es” (cherry – cherries, dictionary – dictionaries) (play – plays, day – days) Some nouns ending with “f” or “fe” get “ves” as plurals (life – lives, wolf – wolves) (roof – roofs, safe – safes)

COUNTABLE/UNCOUNTABLE There are several groups of irregular nouns: Some change their vowel sound (man – men, foot – feet, goose – geese) Some stay the same (deer – deer, fish – fish, sheep – sheep) Some are always plural, and have no singular form (police, clothes, trousers, pants, jeans) There are group nouns that refer to a group no matter how big/small (family, team, group, staff) Some plurals are just completely different and unexpected (child – children, mouse – mice, ox – oxen)

COUNTABLE/UNCOUNTABLE What are the plurals of the following nouns? SINGULAR PLURAL elf sandwich volcano key gas deer cookie country mouse octopus

COUNTABLE/UNCOUNTABLE What are the plurals of the following nouns? SINGULAR PLURAL elf elves sandwich sandwiches volcano volcanoes key keys gas gases deer cookie cookies country countries mouse mice octopus octopi

COUNTABLE/UNCOUNTABLE What are the plurals of the following nouns? SINGULAR PLURAL moose child buffalo woman shelf cactus fish person foot echo

COUNTABLE/UNCOUNTABLE What are the plurals of the following nouns? SINGULAR PLURAL moose child children buffalo buffaloes woman women shelf shelves cactus cacti fish person people foot feet echo echoes

COUNTABLE/UNCOUNTABLE Uncountable nouns are nouns that you cannot count. Since you cannot count them you cannot make them plural. An uncountable noun never gets “a” or “an”. Even though you cannot count an uncountable noun, you sometimes need to say how much there is. There are two ways: 1. Amounts (some, a lot of, much, little) 2. Portions — which are countable (cup of, bottle of, slice of, jar of, glass of, piece of, etc.) We can use these to give more detail about uncountable nouns.

COUNTABLE/UNCOUNTABLE What “amounts” could you add to these uncountable nouns? NOUN AMOUNT OF NOUN homework pizza milk cheese money information time help paper furniture

COUNTABLE/UNCOUNTABLE What “amounts” could you add to these uncountable nouns? NOUN AMOUNT OF NOUN homework a lot of homework pizza some pizza milk a little milk cheese too much cheese money lots of money information a lot of information time some time help a little help paper too much paper furniture lots of furniture

COUNTABLE/UNCOUNTABLE What “portions” could you add to these uncountable nouns? NOUN PORTION OF NOUN homework pizza milk cheese money information time help paper furniture

COUNTABLE/UNCOUNTABLE What “portions” could you add to these uncountable nouns? NOUN PORTION OF NOUN homework a piece of homework pizza a slice of pizza milk a glass of milk cheese a bit of cheese money a stack of money information a bit of information time a moment of time help paper a piece of paper furniture a room of furniture

COUNTABLE/UNCOUNTABLE There are many nouns that you cannot count. There are many reasons that you cannot count something: It’s food you must usually cut (meat, cheese, bread, butter, etc.) It’s a liquid (milk, water, wine, oil, etc.) It’s a material, used and cut into many different shapes (wood, gold, silver, paper, etc.) It’s “abstract” meaning you cannot see/touch it (love, justice, freedom, help, advice, organisation, etc.) It’s a group where everything is not the same (money, news, information, time, furniture, baggage, etc.)

COUNTABLE/UNCOUNTABLE COUNTABLE/UNCOUNTABLE Are these countable or uncountable? NOUN COUNTABLE/UNCOUNTABLE dollar advice book library page love metal hint beef ice cream

COUNTABLE/UNCOUNTABLE COUNTABLE/UNCOUNTABLE Are these countable or uncountable? NOUN COUNTABLE/UNCOUNTABLE dollar countable (dollars) advice uncountable (advice) book countable (books) library countable (libraries) page countable (pages) love uncountable (love) metal uncountable (metal) hint countable (hints) beef uncountable (beef) ice cream uncountable (ice cream)

COUNTABLE/UNCOUNTABLE Be careful with uncountable nouns. It is a single word that is uncountable, not necessarily all examples of it. Money is uncountable. But dollars are countable. Paper is uncountable. But pages are countable. Meat is uncountable. Beef is also uncountable.

COUNTABLE/UNCOUNTABLE Be careful with uncountable nouns. There are also some nouns that are both depending on what you mean: Pizza is countable and uncountable. Whole pizzas are countable. But the fraction of a pizza that you eat is uncountable. Glass is countable and uncountable. A glass that you drink from is countable. The glass in a window is a material so it’s uncountable.

COUNTABLE/UNCOUNTABLE Be careful with uncountable nouns. There are also some nouns that are both depending on what you mean: Coffee (and water/tea/soda) is countable and uncountable. Many people refer to a cup of coffee as simply “a coffee”. But because it’s a liquid, coffee is uncountable. Hair is countable and uncountable. Each hair on your head is countable. But because there are so many, the whole group of hair is uncountable. Grammar Book: Page 57, Activity “J”.