Do I know the difference between countable and uncountable nouns? Why do people learning the English language have difficulty learning the difference between the two? What can I do to learn the difference between countable and uncountable nouns? All of these questions and more will be answered in this lesson.
Countable Nouns Explanation
Countable nouns are used when you simply add -s or -es in the plural form. These nouns have both a singular and a plural form. A few examples would include dog/dogs, house/houses, box/boxes. Study the following examples:
- school/schools, building/buildings
- tree/trees, branch/branches
- blanket/blankets, pillow/pillows
- car/cars, truck/trucks
- table/tables, photo/photos, chair/chairs
- mouse/mice, goose/geese (these are irregular)
You must always remember that countable nouns can be used as both singular and plural. Take a look at the following examples:
- Her dog buries its bone.
- Her dogs bury their bones.
The articles “a”, “an”, and “the” are common when paired with countable nouns:
- She read a book.
- The rain won’t go away.
- They went to the park.
When you are using a countable noun, you will most likely use words such as “a”, “the”, “my”, “this”, “her”, “his”, and “an” to go with it:
- The rabbit jumped into its burrow.
- He beat on the drums.
- When is this essay due?
When you are using the plural form of countable nouns, you do not need the help of other words. Take a look at the following examples:
- We have five children.
- Katie wrote eight books.
- Florida sees a lot of hurricanes.
There are a few of words that are used with countable nouns. A couple of examples of these words are “some” and “any”. These words are also used with uncountable nouns. Take a look at the following examples:
- He played some video games.
- I do not have any work.
Some other words that are used with countable nouns are “a few” and “many”. Note that these two words cannot be used with uncountable nouns.
- I have a few questions.
- That pug doesn’t have many wrinkles.