You can add a number in front of countable nouns, but you can’t do that to uncountable nouns. While we can count the individual bills and coins, and say we have 10 dollars, we don’t say we have 10 monies.
Uncountable nouns do NOT take the article “a” and do NOT take an “s” at the end
Thus, we can say:
“A coin” or “coins” is ok but not “a money” or “moneys.” Money is an uncountable noun.
Another example:
“Pollution is a problem.” – Pollution is an uncountable noun.
“The pollution in my town is a problem.” – This is ok because we are talking about a specific location.
“There is some pollution in my town.” – This is ok because some tells us about the amount of pollution.
“There is a pollution in my town.” – This is NOT ok because a is only used with countable nouns (a car, a boy) and pollution is uncountable. Water, traffic and snow are other examples of uncountable nouns.
Compare Countable to Uncountable Nouns
Countable
Uncountable
dollar
money
song
music
suitcase
luggage
table
furniture
battery
electricity
bottle
wine
report
information
tip
advice
journey
travel
job
work
view
scenery
Tricky Nouns (sometimes countable) Chocolate Hair Cake Stone Time Paper Room Work Noise Light
Countable
Uncountable
There are three hairs in my food!
hair
He doesn’t have much hair.
There are three lights in our living room.
light
There’s too much light! Can you close the curtain please?
Shhhhh! Did you hear a noise? There are so many different noises in the city.
noise
It’s impossible to work with so much noise.
Do you have a paper I can read? (newspaper) I already graded those student papers.
paper
My son wants to draw a picture. Have you got some paper?
That apartment has 4 rooms.
room
Is there room for me to sit at your table?
We had a great time at your house last week. How many times have I told you to stop?
time
Have you got time to get lunch this week?
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of Shakespeare’s greatest works.