Nouns: Counting

We’ve learned how to write nouns when there’s one of them, or when there’s multiple of them. (And what article to put in front of it.)

But … not all things can be counted. Like happiness. How do you count happiness? Can you say you have multiple happinesses?

That’s why nouns fall into two categories: countable and uncountable

Countable

These can be counted on your fingers. They have a singular and plural form, and you can put a number in front of them.

Uncountable

These have only one form. They are often abstract things or concepts. You can’t put a number in front of them.

Whether a noun is countable or not will be important. Especially later on, when we look at adjectives and determiners.

The articles “a”/“an” don’t apply! Because uncountable nouns aren’t “singular”. You can’t know that: they are uncountable.

You cannot say “I want a money” or “Let me give you a tea”. Instead, say “I want money” and “Let me give you (a cup of) tea”.

Always singular

Most nouns are countable, and thus have a singular and plural form.

The uncountable ones are usually concepts or abstractions.

I like to call them always singular, because that is their only form.

These counting words (“many”, “much”, ..) are called quantifiers. You will learn them much later in the course: Adjectives.

Always plural

Similarly, a few nouns exist that are always plural. This is another interesting hiccup in the English language.

It’s usually not hard to find why this is the case. Trousers comes from the fact that this piece of clothing has two parts (one for each leg—a “trouser”), which used to be delivered seperately in some cases.

It’s interesting, though, that many of these weird cases appear on very common words. That’s why I explain it so early.

Numbers

To make sure we’re on the same page, below is a table with English numbers and how to write them.