Count and Noncount Nouns
Introduction
Count and Noncount Nouns
In English, nouns function as either count or noncount (mass). While some nouns are considered to be count and others noncount, there are many cases where a noun can be count or noncount, depending on how it is used in the sentence. Consider the following pairs of examples:
- Jane went to buy a hamburger (count).
- Jane went to buy some hamburger (noncount).
- At fifty, Aunt Katherine didn’t have even one gray hair (count).
- A man with gray hair entered the room (noncount).
In the first sentence, "hamburger" is used as a count noun to refer to a piece of meat between slices of bread.
In the second sentence, "hamburger," a noncount noun, refers to a kind of meat (like lamb, chicken, pork, or fish) that Jane is buying. It is possible to say, "A hamburger (count) is made from hamburger (noncount)."
In the third sentence, "hair" is count because the emphasis is on the number of gray hairs. However, "hair" is much more commonly viewed as noncount, as in the fourth sentence, which refers to the color of the man’s hair.
Count nouns are thought of as more specific entities. The speaker tends to view them as individual, separate units. Noncount or mass nouns, on the other hand, are thought to be more nonspecific, more abstract, or in some cases less tangible. They are not considered easily divisible into individual units. Noncount nouns may include larger masses of things, gases, liquids, granular or powder-like substances, concepts, forces, categories, etc.
The following is a list of count and noncount nouns. Add your own examples.
Noncount Nouns and Their Count Equivalents
| Noncount | Count |
|---|---|
| homework | an assignment |
| money | one dollar and fifty cents |
| gold | a gold bar (bar is count) |
| fruit | an apple, a banana |
| equipment | a ball and a bat |
| furniture | a chair, a lamp |
| clothing | clothes (plural), a dress |
| trouble | a problem |
| news | a news item (item is count) |
| luggage, baggage | a bag, a suitcase |
| wood | a log, a board, a piece of wood (piece is count) |
| meat: pork, beef, chicken | a pig, a pork chop, a cow, a hamburger, a chicken, a chicken leg |
| coffee | a cup of coffee (cup is count) |
| perfume | a bottle of perfume (bottle is count) |
| knowledge | a piece of knowledge, a fact |
| information | a piece of information, a bit of information (bit is count) |
| mathematics, biology, psychology | a subject, an area of studies, a major |
| research | a research paper |
*Clothes can be used with quantity expressions such as "a few clothes" but not with numbers. It is generally incorrect to say "two clothes."
Notice that noncount nouns commonly represent a general class or category of things, such as furniture. Items in that class are usually count, such as sofa, chair, and table.
Quantity Expressions
Some quantity expressions are used only with noncount nouns, while others are used with count nouns. "Some" and "a lot of" can accompany both.
| Noncount | Count |
|---|---|
| a little | a few |
| little (so little) | few (so few) |
| less | fewer |
| much (so much, very much, too much) | many (so many, very many, too many) |
| some | some |
| a lot of | a lot of |
| an amount of* | a number of |
*An amount of + a count noun may be used in conversational English, but it is usually avoided in formal English.
Examples of these quantity expressions with count and noncount nouns are:
- So few people have time to relax (count).
- I prefer to travel with less luggage (noncount).
The first five quantity expressions in the list cannot be accompanied by "of" if a noun directly follows:
- Can I borrow a little sugar?
- There are too many cars on the highway.
"Of" is used when the speaker is referring to a specific, known entity—a person, a tangible or intangible item, a substance, etc. In these cases, "of" is followed by the definite article "the" or the demonstrative "this," an object pronoun (e.g., them, us), or a possessive pronoun (e.g., my, his):
- Some of the sugar spilled on the floor.
- John noticed the books on sale and bought a few of them.
- A few of my friends are pilots.