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.

Example

Two dogs, five men, a hundred bees 🐝, a single child.

Uncountable

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

Example

Money 💰, tea ☕, knowledge, love ❤️, …

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.

Example

I have lots of moneys (X) => I have lots of money

I’ve gained many knowledges (X) => I’ve gained much knowledge

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.

Example

His trousers are black. (👖 ⚫)

The word is plural. But it refers to one piece of clothing.

Example

The news is always at 8 o’clock. (📰 🕗)

The word is plural. But it refers to one specific programme on TV.

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.

NumberWordNumberWord
0zero--
1one11eleven
2two12twelve
3three13thirteen
4four14fourteen
5five15fifteen
6six16sixteen
7seven17seventeen
8eight18eighteen
9nine19nineteen
10ten20twenty
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