Countable and Uncountable Nouns

Countable and Uncountable Nouns

Countable Nouns.

A noun which can be counted is called countable noun.

Pen is countable noun because we can count it and can say one pen, two pens, three pens or more pens.  Pen, chair, cup, room, man, baby, bottle, dog, cat are examples countable nouns.

Singular and Plural noun (Countable Noun)

 A countable noun can be singular as well as plural. Article “a” or “an” is used before singular noun but not before plural noun.

If a singular noun starts with consonant letter then “a” is used before it, i.e. a book, a cat, a pen. If a singular noun starts with a vowel letter or with consonant which sounds like vowel in that word, “an” is used before it i.e. an apple, an umbrella, an onion, an hour.

Plural noun (Countable Noun)
Plural noun means more than one person, place or thing. Word “chair” is a singular noun but word “chairs” is plural noun.

     Plurals are usually formed by adding –s or –es to singular noun for example book–books, cat–cats, box–boxes, tax–taxes. If a word ends with “y”, the “y” is changed to “I” then –es is added to make it plural, for example, baby–babies, lady–ladies. There may be some exceptions.
    Some plural are formed in different ways for example, man–men, child–children, leaf–leaves, wife–wives, foot–feet, toot–teeth, datum–data, basis–bases.  Such plurals are called irregular plural forms.
    Some nouns have same plural and singular form, for example, sheep–sheep, deer–deer, swine–swine. 

Uncountable Nouns.

Uncountable noun refers to substances which cannot be counted.

For example, water is an uncountable noun because we cannot count it. We cannot say, one water or two water.  Such substances which cannot be counted in terms of numbers are called uncountable noun.
Examples: Water, milk, bread, honey, rain, furniture, news, information, pleasure, honesty, courage, weather, music, preparation, warmth, wheat are examples of uncountable nouns.

 Use of Uncountable Nouns.

Uncountable nouns are usually treated as singular noun for auxiliary verbs in sentence but articles “a or an” are usually not used before uncountable nouns.

Examples.
       Water maintains its level.
       Necessity is the mother of invention
       His preparation was not good.
       The Weather is very pleasant today.
       This information is very helpful in solving the problem.
       The warmth of sun causes evaporation of water.

Uncountable nouns may be used as countable noun when it refers to an individual thing. For example life is uncountable noun but it be used as countable noun if refers to individual, lives.
Example.
It was feared that two lives had been lost.

We can also use word like “some, any, no, little, more etc” before uncountable nouns if needed in sentence.
Examples.
         They have no information about the accused.
         There is little milk in the glass.

Changing Uncountable nouns into countable nouns.

       We can change uncountable noun into countable noun if we specify a unit or measuring standard for it. For example “water” is an uncountable noun but we can make it countable by saying one glass of water or two glass of water etc. In this example we selected a unit that is glass. We can also say one litre of water or one cup of water etc. By selecting such units or measuring standards we can change uncountable noun in to countable which can be counted in terms of numbers.
Examples.
    Uncountable – countable
       Bread – a piece of bread.
       Wheat – a grain of wheat.
       Milk – a glass of milk
       Information – a piece of information

Noun

Noun
Noun is a word which names a person, a place or a thing.

For example  chair, table, book, New York, computer, cup, boy, John, hospital, Newton,  garden, room, man, Paris, doctor, and pen are nouns because each of these words is a name of a person, a place or a thing.

Examples.
Chair, table, book, cup, computer, picture,  (names of things)
New York, Paris, Canada, Toronto, school, hospital, cinema, garden, (names of places)
John, Newton, R.H Stephen, Einstein, man, boy, doctor (names of persons)

Types of Noun
There are two main types of noun.
    • Common Noun
    • Proper Noun
Common Noun.
  Name of a common or a non-specific thing, place, or person is called common noun.

Common noun refers to a non-specific or non-particular thing, place or person.
For example book, pen, room, garden man, girl, road, camera, month, day, chair, school, boy, car, are common nouns because each of these nouns refers to a common thing, place or person.

 Proper Noun.
 Name of a particular or a specific thing, place or person is called proper Noun.

For example BMW Car, April, Monday, Oxford University, New York, America, John, Newton, Einstein, R.H Stephen, are proper nouns because each of these nouns refers to a particular thing, place or person.

If a common noun is specified it becomes a proper noun. For example day is a common noun but if it is specified like Monday or Friday, it becomes proper noun. Similarly car is a common noun but if it is specified like BMW Car, it becomes proper noun.

 Use of CAPITAL LETTER for proper noun.      
     
The first letter of proper noun is always written in capital letter.

Examples.
         He lives in Paris.
         She studies in Oxford University.
         Author of this book is John Stephen.
         Laws of motion were presented by Newton
         The richest person of the world is Bill Gates.

 Use of “THE” for proper noun.     The article “the” is used before some proper nouns. Here are some rules for the use of article “the” before proper nouns.
    Article “the” is not used before the name of countries, cities, for example New York, Mexico, Canada, Toronto, London, Paris, America. But if the name of country or city or place expresses group of places or lands or states, then article “the” will be used before it. For example, the Philippines, the Netherlands, the United States
    Article “the” is not used before the name of universities, for example Oxford University, Yale University, or Columbia University. But if the name of university is written in a order that it includes the word “of” then article “the” will be used before it, for example, the University of British Colombia, the university of Oxford, the University of Toronto.
    Article “the” is used before names composed of both common noun and proper noun, for example the New York city, the Dominion of Canada, the River Nile
    “The” is used before the names of laws, principles, theories or devices, for example, the Pythagorean Theorem, the Fahrenheit Scale, the Law of Newton, the Allais effect. But if the proper noun is used in possessive form, no article will be used, for example Newton’s Laws of Motion, Hooke’s Law of Elasticity, Dalton’s Law of Partial Pressures.
    “The” used by the name of ocean, sea, river, dessert or forest (except lakes and fall) for example the Pacific Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, the Sahara, the Black Forests.
    “The” is used before the names of buildings, hotels, libraries having particular names, for example the Brunel Hotel, the Lahore Museum, the Library of Congress,
    “The” is used before the name of a geographical region and points on globe, for example the Middle East, the West, the Equator, the North Pole
    “The” is usually used before the names of organizations for example, the Association of Chartered Accountants,  the World Health Organization,

Countable and Uncountable Nouns

Countable Nouns.
  A noun which can be counted is called countable noun.

For example, "book" is countable noun because we can count it and can say one book, two books, three books and so on. Pen, chair, cup, room, man, baby, bottle, dog, cat are examples countable nouns. A countable noun can be singular as well as plural. Article “a” or “an” is used before singular noun but not before plural noun. If a singular noun starts with consonant letter then “a” is used before it, i.e. a book, a cat, a pen. If a singular noun starts with............................