Uncountable Nouns - English Grammar Lesson

Do you know the difference between countable and uncountable nouns? The basic difference is quite simple, but this topic still needs attention. Often, countable and uncountable nouns are different in different languages. Also, some nouns can be both countable and uncountable with different meanings! We'll look at these ideas in this lesson, and you can see how uncountable nouns work in English. Learn more with a certified English teacher: bit.ly/ooe-teachers.
What’s the difference between paper and a paper? Why do we say trousers are… but news is…? Why can’t you say, 'Can you give me an advice'?
You’ll learn the answers to all these questions in this lesson.
See the full version of this free lesson here:
www.oxfordonlineenglish.com/u...
Contents:
1. A basic guide to uncountable nouns 0:40
2. Which nouns are uncountable? 4:06
3. Nouns can be countable and uncountable 7:09
4. Some other strange nouns 12:39
5. Making uncountable nouns countable 16:09
In this lesson you can learn:
- The basic rules of uncountable nouns.
- How to tell which nouns are uncountable.
- How some nouns can be both countable and uncountable.
- About uncountable nouns that are always in the plural form.
- Ways to make uncountable nouns countable.
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[@amanbaevibrayim4021]

Best lesson

[@valeriewijeyesekera1439]

Clear pronunciation, good projection, simple language with the correct speed makes it so easy to understand. A great job, Sir

[@Oxfordonlineenglish1]

Thanks for the support, Valerie! Glad you enjoyed the lesson!

[@velichkakovachka5610]

A really good lesson, it helped me to improve my knowledge about uncountable nouns.

[@nigora2941]

I can't thank you enough! 😘 This lesson really helped me to understand difference between time and a time. I didn't know why people say "i have a difficult time" Now i know why 😊😊😊 watching you from Uzbekistan!!!

[@WBanduMedia07]

Great teaching. Thanks lot.

[@sdas127]

Great lesson for non-english speaking people. This subject was very confusing before I heard your lecture. Thank you so much,

[@sarjonojkm]

OOE really helps me in improving my English speaking, thanks a lot

[@lurwar2098]

Excellent job, Professor. You nailed it. 👍

[@beetofmusic9006]

Thank you oxford online english ! I'm from 🇱🇰 sri lanka

[@nguyenthihuong6714]

love his voice so much. thanks for this video, helpful a lot. you look very kind-hearted.

[@rinatan4830]

this is very clear !

[@JoseSa8]

You are the best teaching English. Tanks

[@habiburlbrahman]

Thank you, sir.

[@naturesbounty6426]

Thank you Martin. Now, I can differentiate between countable and non-countable nouns.

[@Oxfordonlineenglish1]

Glad it helped you!

[@karuheine1152]

This lesson was helpful and surprisingly very interesting, because I never thought about this. Thank you very much. I have learn a lot

[@Oxfordonlineenglish1]

Glad you enjoyed it and learned, Karu!

[@agapihanialidi1879]

A very good lesson,teacher! Thank you very much!

[@ktos36782]

Martin you are amazing teacher.Love this lesson

[@yongluo1873]

thank you teacher !

[@lailazakaria2194]

Thank you soo much!!

[@lidaperez972]

Clear pronunciation ! Amazing!

[@albertoalbertoni9529]

Thanks Martin!

[@bodyayman8753]

It's very good lesson.

[@Oxfordonlineenglish1]

Glad you liked it, Body! Thanks for watching.

[@user-tp3zz5hp1n]

Shouldn’t it be “a very good lesson” ?!

[@khaleelmustafa8342]

that's great work now I am going to learn English language .......

[@mahmoudshaaban1337]

Your explanation is more than excellent.I am an English teacher.I learn a lot from you.I always listen to your lessons before I go to school.Believe or not ,I keep by heart all your lessons and apply them in classes.Thank you.keep it up.

[@Oxfordonlineenglish1]

Thank you for the support, Mahmoud! We're glad you find our lessons helpful.

[@zas5981]

It's a good lesson for me.Gramercy!

[@klaudiawojakowska9062]

It was really helpful. Also, the teacher is funny and knowledge always sticks after a class like this.

[@rachelgreen7830]

Thank you very much, it very helpful.

[@rosamariaaguilar5159]

Thank you so much teacher!

[@Mirelly]

Great, thak you theacher!!

[@abduldaley9159]

this is a great teacher.

[@moonymoon9685]

Always wonderful... A BIG thank you...

[@nwolisaedna6891]

Excellent delivery 👏

[@nguyenquang4579]

Thank You so much !

[@user-ur6vo1gf7x]

Great! Thank you so much!

[@lovebites4098]

Very useful and informative. You pretty much tried to cover all the concepts and that is what i loved about the video. Good work keep up the effort god bless u

[@Oxfordonlineenglish1]

Thanks for the support and glad you enjoyed the lesson!

[@radhikaradhika4182]

Great lesson sir

[@AbdullahRafi-l9f]

A lot of thank to you sir.

[@toukasuleiman5907]

It's really a good ;Thanks for your delailed explanation🌹🌹

[@LaminSowe-ys6tx]

Thank you very much.

[@hichamlamtakham4355]

Merci bcp pour ces infos

[@atulkumar1264]

Thanks From INDIA

[@talhausmani7669]

It is very difficult to judge uncountable or Countable nounbut by watching that video I can judge thanks a lot teacher

[@mesfinwakena9904]

The best!

[@sabaakram1368]

Food and drink pour some honey here. Collective noun.. A folk of birds was flying. Abstract noun.. I am impressed With his honesty

[@liddium]

Thanks for a lesson. I would be glad to see more lessons about nouns like nouns as modifiers, verbal nouns (differences with gerund). P.s. And how do we pronounce "often"? With "t" or not? 😃

[@Oxfordonlineenglish1]

Glad you like the lesson. We have many grammar lessons which you might also enjoy: www.oxfordonlineenglish.com/free-english-grammar-lessons. Also, 'often' is pronounced both ways.

[@m.ammarahmad6811]

excellent lesson... thank you SIR

[@Oxfordonlineenglish1]

Thanks for watching! Glad you enjoyed the lesson!

[@andreagiraldomdphd.8376]

Dear Sir, Wonderful. A

[@Oxfordonlineenglish1]

Thanks for watching, Andrea!

[@RuyG]

This one is tough because what is countable or uncountable is merely cultural, so it changes from one country to another. Most of those examples are countable in my language, for example. By the way, in my point of view, a fish is always a fish. It's weird to say there's a fish on my food as so is weird to think another animal is human food.

[@Oxfordonlineenglish1]

The differences are quite interesting aren't they, Ruy? Thanks for watching and hope you enjoyed the video!

[@Yash__kumar888]

Thanks sir 😀 I'm from India and watching your video now.

[@lightingtimewithryan8729]

Thank you for everything

[@bblue1779]

💖 thank you very good lesson

[@hassanaboali4294]

Binayi Sabar . I´m Hassan, I´m from Egypt.and my name is NOOR HONY on skype. I´d like to take part in the conversation group, via skype or in the way you usually do. My goal is to have new friends, to practise and improve my English by speaking with native speakers and with people from all over the world. Please, I´ll be waiting for your invitation. i don´t know which is the next step I need to follow. Can you help…

[@hassanaboali4294]

Binayi Sabar I´m Hassan, I´m from Egypt.and my name is NOOR HONY on skype. I´d like to take part in the conversation group, via skype or in the way you usually do. My goal is to have new friends, to practise and improve my English by speaking with native speakers and with people from all over the world. Please, I´ll be waiting for your invitation. i don´t know which is the next step I need to follow. Can you help…

[@dewanfariharamisa5664]

Thank you

[@sonymb9629]

thank you so much sir

[@minakhidash4745]

excellent sir

[@safaraliibodov400]

Thanks a lot

[@restionmuksin3554]

I live thisssss so much

[@anonymous2.128]

4:10 which noun is uncountable 7:18 nouns that can be unaccountable and countable 12:55 exceptions

[@mahmudesgerli8380]

The best teachers

[@azzam3751]

Thank you, it's really good lesson.

[@XXX-sz5lt]

Food/drink- wine, flour, salt. Collective nouns- family, information. Abstract noun- time, research, advice. Police is a collective noun which uses plural? Same as people?

[@Oxfordonlineenglish1]

Exactly, Dana!

[@nellyb.9340]

Tip: in case anyone is confused with ‘money’ being an uncountable noun, what we count are notes or coins, I hope that helps.

[@manhphai6885]

Thanks

[@somamandal3880]

Very nice ......

[@lightingtimewithryan8729]

Thanks👍

[@joaoandre7488]

Knowledge is very important in our lives. I like to much cheese. I like eating fish.

[@aneelapervaiz1978]

It's an excellent lecture ! Yet I just wanted to share that in last minute of your lecture while talking about 'furniture' you used 'a item of furniture' while I think it should be 'an item of furniture'. Kindly reply.

[@jonathangandara3980]

Martin is great!!

[@dipujha2521]

Love from India ❤

[@MohammadoliMiah]

❤

[@inasosman3020]

When you said that in British English we say are for collective nouns, and when we use that that those mean each person on the team or something. But if we are using is those that mean the whole group? Can you explain this?? And collective nouns treaded as countable or uncountable?

[@Oxfordonlineenglish1]

Hi Inas, collective nouns in British English are treated as plurals, 'The team are getting ready'. In American English, they're treated as singulars, 'The team is getting ready'.

[@le_ad_family8363]

What about the mass nouns that have both countable and uncountable uses?

[@inasosman3020]

hi!! soemtimes there are soem uncountable nouns that can have a s like foods, waters,frutis

[@Oxfordonlineenglish1]

It's true, Inas!

[@inasosman3020]

Oxford Online English what is the different if a word can have a s or without are there any difference??

[@LagoonAdmin]

Great lesson! Also we can say 'a bit of' with uncountable nouns like 'advice', 'luck', 'help', 'progress'. EXAMPLE: I had a bit of help with the test EXAMPLE: Let me give you two useful bits of advice.

[@woowooNeedsFaith]

I have a problem of accepting an idea of uncountability of advice. Are advice really that bad that you have no change of counting them? On which point a hint or a suggestion becomes advice and suddenly you become unable to count it?

[@Oxfordonlineenglish1]

These things aren't logical or consistent. 'Advice' is uncountable; it's a brute fact. If you start trying to find a reason why, you'll just get frustrated :)

[@spacewallet6250]

@@Oxfordonlineenglish1 please why don't we say? three fishes in your example.why don't we say? I have much work to do.why do we say a cake ? And why I 'd like some cake(which is split from"a cake")?great thanks you made a great work work

[@arpana761]

He is a man of an ability. He is a man of ability. should we use or not the artile "an" before ability and why ? could you plz explain

[@allengina1091]

That’s a problem in our country because when i was in Elementary and high school my teacher taught me British english but during my college it was in American English though my teacher would always say is not a big deal but still i was confused sometimes. Thank you.

[@Oxfordonlineenglish1]

Thanks for sharing! Yes, there are some aspects that can be confusing but for the most part uncountable nouns share the same rules! The biggest difference is when talking about groups of people.

[@2chill2]

Exercise answers: Bean and grain. Wood and rock. Thought and theory.

[@sumi8106]

can you do video on writing task 1 and 2 ?👍

[@Oxfordonlineenglish1]

Hi Suman, we will have more IELTS-specific writing lessons in the future, however, this video might help you in the meantime: www.oxfordonlineenglish.com/video-writing-an-intro.

[@sabaalizadeh4243]

Useful

[@Oxfordonlineenglish1]

Glad you found the lesson useful! Saba!

[@nayemahmed4372]

What's the difference among (big, large)( amall,little) (high, tall) in english.

[@Oxfordonlineenglish1]

Thanks for sharing your comment. Our certified English teachers can help you with online classes. You can book a trial lesson here: www.oxfordonlineenglish.com/book-first-class.

[@DONGJOOMAN24]

I have some questions about the uncountable-plural like trousers, scissors, clothes, etc., since they are uncountable nouns the quantifier that we should use is much. So we say, 'I have much clothes.' but for me it sounds strange because I usually hear native English speaker say 'I have a lot of clothes.'. I hope to hear a response from you.

[@Oxfordonlineenglish1]

Hi there, Dong. We would use 'many' with these words, but also don't forget that we can't use 'much' in positive sentences. Some examples: 'I have a lot of clothes,' or, 'I don't have many clothes.' Hope this helps you!

[@DONGJOOMAN24]

@@Oxfordonlineenglish1 Wow! You have responded timely. In the Philippines where English is our second language, these rules in English are the things that we must pay attention to. You're a big help!

[@ObadaASamad]

great

[@inasosman3020]

What do we use with fruit and the other things that are similar to this.

[@Oxfordonlineenglish1]

Talking about the idea, use the uncountable form, 'I eat a lot of fruit every day,'. If you are referring to specific kinds, use the countable form, 'We have five kinds of fruits here at dinner'.

[@user-ed5ix4if1m]

Good evening sir, I heard you said "an item of furniture" while the written on the background was (a item of furniture ) , why there was that difference, please?

[@Oxfordonlineenglish1]

Hi there. The correct phrase is 'an item of furniture.' 'A item' is incorrect. Thank you for pointing that out!

[@walidwalid-ro8ei]

the article A is used with singular and countable noun , we can't use it with plural or uncountable noun?

[@Oxfordonlineenglish1]

Exactly!

[@nellyb.9340]

F.A.O OOE team- I work and live in London. Can I say “give me some advice” (on my problem which I told you about). If not, why not? Because “a piece of advice” = chopping ‘advice’ into bits, so in my opinion since I don’t need the “whole” advice and the advice I’m referring to is already know, “give me some advice” or “I need some advice” is acceptable. ‘Faith, trust’ are also abstract nouns and we use ‘some’. How about ‘a bit of advice’? Thanks

[@Oxfordonlineenglish1]

Hi there. Good questions. Yes, you can say: 'some advice,' 'a piece of advice,' and 'a bit of advice.' Hope this helps you!

[@kabeerfazlani9719]

Some nouns are uncountable in English language but can be countable in other languages ?? Example: Travel Weather Fun Work

[@Oxfordonlineenglish1]

Nice, Kabeer! 'Work' is uncountable, you are correct.

[@kabeerfazlani9719]

Thank you....!

[@inasosman3020]

What I mean when do I know wether to change the verb and pronoun? Please answer

[@mehrdadrabiei5811]

Please tell me these questions' answers with explanation. Two-thirds of the pizza .... eaten. were or was? One-third of the pizza .... eaten. were or was? 0.9 gr of sugar .... necessary to make a solution. is or are?

[@inasosman3020]

I also get very confused when we are saying the class was or the class were, and also with are and is?Could you please explain that

[@Oxfordonlineenglish1]

Hi Inas, we have a lesson that should be helpful for you: www.oxfordonlineenglish.com/verb-be.

[@inasosman3020]

when do we know wether to use a piece og or a pair of. when we know that the noun is uncoutable, how do we know

[@Oxfordonlineenglish1]

Hi Inas, use 'a piece of' for one thing, such as 'a piece of paper'. Use 'a pair of' for things that come in twos, such as, 'a pair of socks' or 'a pair of pants'. This lesson gives you helpful rules for understanding what countable nouns are.

[@ivantruffle1529]

_Hello, sir! I have a question to ask. Where can I learn more about making uncountable nouns countable; more specifically, quantitative adjectives such as a piece of, a portion of, a spoonful of, and so on?_ *Thank you for your great lesson.* :D

[@Oxfordonlineenglish1]

You're welcome, Ivan! We're glad you enjoyed it. While we don't have other lessons on this topic currently, you're welcome to talk with a teacher to practice more with quantitative adjectives: www.oxfordonlineenglish.com/about-our-online-english-teachers. You can also do a web search for other helpful resources.

[@radhikaradhika4182]

Sir wil u pls explain me about letter writing as I have already booked slot for exam

[@Oxfordonlineenglish1]

Hi Radhika, we have some helpful lessons on writing that you might enjoy such as this one: www.oxfordonlineenglish.com/improve-english-writing.

[@nellyb.9340]

OOE team- at around 4:30 sec you state “!! Be careful ‘fruit! is uncountable but ‘vegetables’ are countable”. I don’t understand what you mean by that, could you give an example. Thanks

[@Oxfordonlineenglish1]

Good question, Nelly. 'Fruit' is uncountable, meaning we usually can't make the word plural/count it. For example: 'I ate a lot of fruit today,' or, 'I would like one piece of fruit.' 'Vegetables' are countable. For example: 'I ate a lot of vegetables today,' or, 'I would like one vegetable.' Hope this helps you!

[@ftcarman7761]

tallent dear

[@user-mv2hn6jf7i]

Today l ate dinner fried rice and 2 boiled eggs and drank some water a herb of sheep I love to eat

[@yunisusilowati7]

19:25 a item of furniture or an item of furniture?

[@Oxfordonlineenglish1]

Hi Yuni, it would be 'an item'.

[@armankozhamkulov1922]

The lesson is useful but shows inconsistence of the language. Why do English use (a bag, portion, etc.) for Rice but don't use (a period) for time to make uncountable time, countable? It's a rithorical question.

[@virawat7408]

presumptions , assumptions , opinions pls explain this word

[@holahopper]

Is mathematics plural or singular in the UK? One guy who said "we Brits" states you can't say math but maths because the word mathematics is plural. I checked it on the internet and found that it's singular and uncountable but he insists that in the UK it's plural and I'm uneducated. English is not my mother tongue, so I can be wrong, but can it really be plural? Is it a kind of exception?

[@Oxfordonlineenglish1]

Hi there. 'Maths' is commonly used in British English and 'math' is commonly used in American English. Hope this helps you!

[@XXX-sz5lt]

A piece of advice/ a slice of bread/ a part of the money; some money/a piece of furniture/ a cup of coffee