Countable & Uncountable Nouns

Hook: “An apple” but not “a water” — some food words can be counted, and some can’t.

Notice: “I have three apples.” “I have some water.” “There are two eggs.” “There is some rice.”

The rule

Countable nouns have a singular and plural form and can follow a number: an apple, two apples, three eggs. Uncountable nouns have no plural and can’t follow a number directly: water, rice, bread, milk, cheese (you can’t say “two waters” — you’d say “two glasses of water”).

Practice

  1. Is “apple” countable or uncountable? (Answer: countable)
  2. Is “rice” countable or uncountable? (Answer: uncountable)
  3. Is “egg” countable or uncountable? (Answer: countable)
  4. Sort these into two lists: bread, banana, milk, potato, cheese, orange.

Try it next: our VocabularyQuiz tool — countable/uncountable set.

Try the Vocabulary Quiz Tool →

This lesson sets up the grammar you need for asking about quantity.

Azizul Hakim
Latest posts by Azizul Hakim (see all)
PreviousNext