Count and Noncount Nouns

In this minicourse you will learn about count and non-count (or "mass") nouns. Knowing the difference between count and noncount nouns will help you do the following:

Use the noun plural ending -s;
Use the appropriate form of the indefinite article a(n) (that is, either a or an) and the definite article the;
Use words that express quantities.

In order to make correct choices in using these forms, you must first know how to tell whether a noun is countable or noncountable. The first section will help you do that. The ones that follow then discuss the three areas of grammar listed above.

Count or Noncount???

The main difference between count and noncount nouns is whether you can count the things they refer to or not.

COUNT nouns refer to things that can be divided up into units which are separate and distinct from one another. They usually refer to what can be seen or heard.

Examples:

table
chair
word
remark
finger
bottle
award
candidate

NONCOUNT nouns refer to things that can't be counted because they are thought of as wholes which can't be cut into parts. They often refer to abstractions and occasionally have a collective meaning (e.g., furniture).

Examples:

anger
furniture
warmth
leisure
education
courage
progress
weather

Here is an illustration that may clarify the concept. Think of the batter from which a cake is made. Before you put the batter into the oven, it can't be divided into parts because it's a thick liquid. Once it has been baked, however, it becomes solid enough to be cut into pieces. Noncount nouns are like cake batter; count nouns are like pieces of cake.

While such illustrations are of some use, they should not be taken too literally. It is not an accident that batter and cake were chosen to illustrate the mass/count distinction - in English batter is a mass noun and cake (in its count use - see "An Exception to the Rule" in the next section) a count noun! But different languages divide up their nouns into count and non-count in different ways, if they do so at all. Nouns that are countable in English may be noncountable in other languages, including your own, and vice-versa.

If you understand the difference in meaning between count and noncount nouns, you're ready to look at how it helps you make the grammatical choices listed above: 1) pluralizing, 2) using articles, and 3) using quantity words.

Pluralizing

The Rule

From the definitions of mass and count given above you may have already guessed the rule for pluralizing them:

count nouns pluralize with -s;
noncount nouns don't pluralize at all.

This rule works for the nouns in the lists of examples in the first section. Check this for yourself before reading further.

An Exception to the Rule

For a number of nouns, the rule needs to be slightly revised. Certain nouns in English belong to both classes: they have both a noncount and a count meaning. Normally the noncount meaning is abstract and general and the count meaning concrete and specific. Compare:

Count

I've had difficulties finding a job.

The talks will take place at Krannert.

There were bright lights and harsh sounds.

Noncount

He's had no difficulty finding a job.

I dislike idle talk.

Light travels faster than sound.

Note:

A special case of this use of the mass/count distinction is for the purpose of classification. The nouns which function this way mainly denote foods and beverages: food(s), drink(s), wine(s), bread(s), coffee(s), fruit(s), and so on. Examples:

There are several French wines to choose from. (= kinds of wine)

I prefer Columbian coffee to Brazilian.

A recent entry into this class is *homework*, which at least among engineering students, has the count plural *homeworks* in addition to its noncount use. Because this usage is not yet firmly established, however, you should check with your instructor about using it in writing.

A Revision of the Rule

These exceptions require that the rule for pluralizing be revised: count nouns and nouns used in a count sense pluralize; noncount nouns and nouns used in a noncount sense do not.

The two possibilities in each half of the rule require different kinds of choices from you. If you know that a noun is either count or noncount you need to decide only if it is *possible* to pluralize the noun. On the other hand, if a noun can be both count and noncount, then you need to decide whether it is *appropriate* to pluralize.

To summarize, we can put the rule in a chart, like this:

             Pluralizes with -s          Doesn't Pluralize

Count Noun           XX
Count Use            XX
Noncount Noun                                   XX
Noncount Use                                    XX

Articles

Nouns that Take Articles

Choosing which article to use with a noun is a complex matter because the range of choices depends on whether the noun is question is 1) count or noncount and 2) singular or plural. Both count nouns, singular and plural, and noncount nouns take articles.

Combinations of Nouns and Articles

The following chart shows which articles go together with which kinds of nouns. Notice that this and these and those have been included because, like the, they mark the noun which they modify as definite, which means the noun refers 1) to a unique individual or 2) to some person, event, or object known to both writer and reader from their general knowledge or from what has come before in a piece of writing.

                a(n)       the          this       these
                                        that       those
---------------------------------------------------------
COUNT
Singular        XX          XX           XX         XX
Plural                      XX                      XX