了解不可数名词

Understanding Noncount Nouns

Hello, I’m Miss Fang. Today we are going totalk about the difference between count and noncount nouns.

Most nouns in English can be counted. Thinkof the noun shirt, as in, "I bought a shirt." If you have more thanone shirt, you just add "s" to make it plural.

"I bought 10 shirts."

But a shirt is part of a larger category:clothing. You can say "I bought three shirts" but you cannot say,"I bought three clothings." Clothing is a noncount noun. You cannotuse a, an, or a number before a noncount noun.

Grammatically, a noncount noun is alwayssingular, even if it refers to multiple items like furniture, luggage, orequipment.

A count noun in your native language mightbe a noncount noun in English. For example, the Spanish translation forhomework is a count noun. But homework is a noncount noun in English. It wouldsound strange to say, "I had three homeworks." You could say, "Ihad a lot of homework."

You can also could say, "I had threehomework assignments." In this example, homework is used as an adjective.It describes assignment. You can count assignments, but you cannot counthomework.

There is no perfect rule to determine if anoun is count or noncount. Fortunately, most noncount nouns fall into a fewcategories.

Groups of similar things

Noncount nouns often refer to groups ofsimilar objects. Furniture, for example, is a noncount noun. Furniture is acollection of similar countable items like chairs, sofas, tables, shelves, bedsand so on.

Luggage is also a noncount noun. You cancount bags, packages, and backpacks, but you cannot count luggage. Othernoncount nouns that refer to groups of similar things include equipment, food,garbage, mail, money and vocabulary.

Abstractions

Abstract words are noncount. These arewords that refer to ideas or qualities instead of physical objects or events.Abstractions are usually things that you cannot see: They only exist in themind. For example: love, hate, information, news, peace, music and art. Thereare tens of thousands of abstract words.

Other types of noncount nouns

It is logical that particles -- things thatcome in very small pieces -- are noncount nouns. It would be difficult to countrice, corn, salt, sugar and dust.

The names of academic fields of study arenoncount. Even though physics, economics, and mathematics all end with an s,they are singular noncount nouns. For example, "Physics is difficult."

Words related to nature and weather areoften noncount, such as rain, wind, snow, lightning, fire and air.

Words with count and noncount meaning

A few words can be used as count andnoncount nouns. But the meaning changes a little bit. Let's look at the wordglass. As a noncount noun, glass refers to the clear material used to makewindows. For example, "The lamp was made of glass."

As a count noun, glass refers to a drinkingcontainer made of glass, as in "Could you bring me a glass of water?"

The plural glasses has two meanings. Itcould refer to more than one drinking container. "Please wash theglasses."

Glasses could also refer to spectacles, apair of lenses used to correct vision. "I have been wearing glasses sinceI was a teenager."

Coffee, along with other drinks, has acount and noncount meaning. "Coffee is grown in Colombia" refers tocoffee as an agricultural product. "I'll have a coffee" refers to asingle cup of coffee.

Making Noncount Nouns into Count Nouns

There are a few very important words thatmake it possible to count noncount nouns. Many food words are noncount nouns.But if you are cooking, you need to measure specific amounts of food.

A recipe for cookies might call for "2cups of sugar, a half-pound of butter, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla." Pound,cup and teaspoon are examples of measure words that you can use to makenoncount nouns countable.

One of the most useful of these measurewords is piece. You cannot count information but you can count a piece ofinformation. Piece is a very useful word because it can be used with both countand noncount nouns. For example, you can have two pieces of pie or three piecesof information. Listen to this song by Paul Young.

Every time you go away

You take a piece of me with you.

Some of these measure words have poeticqualities to them, such as: a grain of sand, a speck of dust, a bolt oflightning, a flake of snow, and a breath of air.

Common mistakes

Let's look at some common mistakes withnoncount nouns.

Traffic might seem like a count noun. Afterall, it refers to a lot of cars. But traffic is a noncount noun in English.Vocabulary, hardware, information, music, and advice are noncount nouns thatEnglish learners often confuse for count nouns.

And let us not forget the most importantnoncount noun of all: grammar. You cannot count grammar. But you can countgrammar rules.

Come on come on come on come on and

Take it!

Take another little piece of heart now baby

Break it?

Break another little piece of my heart Iknow you will

Have a

Have another little piece of my heart nowbaby