What's an uncountable noun?

Below is a transcript of the video.

I’m Dr Clare Lynch of the Doris and Bertie writing school and I’m on a mission to help you become a better, more confident writer. 

Today I want to look at a feature of English that international speakers of English always have trouble with –  uncountable nouns. 

Or as they’re also known – mass nouns.

What is an uncountable or mass noun?

An uncountable noun is a noun (that’s a thing word) that doesn’t have a plural.

For instance, the word apple is countable, so we can say:

“I had two apples for lunch.”

But the word rice is not countable, so we cannot say:

“I had three rices for dinner.”

An uncountable noun then is always a singular noun. 

We can’t simply put an s after rice to make it plural. 

And because uncountable nouns are singular, they take a singular verb, or doing word. For instance:

“Your apples look nice.” - countable

“Your rice looks nice.” - uncountable

We also can’t use the indefinite article a or an with uncountable nouns.

For example, you can’t say:

“I had a rice for lunch.”

Now, we can’t pluralise an uncountable noun but we can use words that suggest an amount of something…

such as some, any, much, or little.

For example:

“Do you have any rice?”

“I have some rice.”

“I haven’t got much rice.”

“I do have a little rice.”

Another way we can get around the problem of not being able to count these nouns or thing words, is to refer to an aspect of them that is countable. For instance, we can say:

“I ate three spoonfuls of rice for lunch.”

“I found six grains of rice on the floor.”

“I made a bowl of rice for dinner.”

“I bought two different types of rice from the shop.”

Did you notice all those examples used the phrase “of rice”? 

In grammar talk they’re called partitive phrases - because they’re describing a part of a whole.

But let’s call them “of” phrases.

So let’s take a look at some other common uncountable nouns. 

Specifically the uncountable nouns I see used incorrectly most frequently by my international students.

First up, advice.

I hear it a lot, but strictly speaking you can’t say:

“Thank you for the advices.”  or

“Can you give me an advice?”

Instead, you should say:

“Thank you for your advice.”  or

“Can you give me some advice?”

Or you could use one of those partitive “of” phrases:

“I gave him a piece of advice”

“She added a whole page of advice.”

Another word my students often incorrectly pluralise is feedback.

You can’t strictly speaking say:

“She gave me good feedbacks.”  or

“Can you give me a feedback.”

Instead, you should say:

“She gave me a bit of feedback” or

“Can you give me some feedback”

Other common uncountable nouns my students often use incorrectly include:

Evidence - it should be a piece of evidence, not evidences!

Research - again, a piece of research not researches!

Training - some training, not trainings.

Jargon - a piece of jargon, not jargons.

Homework - it might be a batch or pile or lots of homework. Or some homework, but definitely not homeworks.

Information - again, a piece of information or some information, but not informations.

. . . and there are many more.

Now, if you found this lecture interesting, you may also be interested to know that I’m actually planning a full in-depth course where I’ll be digging into all the trickiest points of grammar and English writings I see my students struggling with. 

Not just uncountable nouns, but also things like articles and prepositions. 

And the course will be packed with cheat sheets, exercises and more to really elevate advanced students’ writing in English.

So if that sounds like something you’d be interested in hearing more about and signing up for, do head over to my website, DorisandBertie.com and sign up to receive my newsletter so you’re the first to hear about that new course.

But anyway, for the time being that’s uncountable nouns. 

And now you know what they are and how they work, that knowledge is going to give you the ability to use the words fewer and less appropriately.

So which should you use and what’s the difference?

That’s a question even people whose first language is English struggle to answer.

And that’s going to be the subject of my next video, so stay tuned for that one in a fortnight’s time.

Post cover image credit: Matt Seymour

For more writing advice, enrol in my online course, Writing With Confidence, available at the Doris and Bertie Writing School.

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