Uncountable Nouns

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. work He has no money. He needs work!

Quiz - Quiz - Uncountable Nouns

Select whether the following sentences are correct or incorrect.

His musics are wonderful.

His money is in his wallet.

She will give me the informations in the meeting tomorrow.

They will have all the furnitures moved by next week.

She sang all the songs perfectly.

The road trip across Turkey had some amazing views, so we stopped several times just to take pictures.

The sceneries in that part of the country are really worth seeing.

The suitcases are all packed and ready to go.

Don’t make him carry all the luggages all by himself!

I’ve got a lot of works to do today, let’s meet tomorrow instead.