Unit 2.3-Countable & Uncountable nouns / Much & Many/ Some & Any

• English
• Vocational Education

Nouns

• Proper Nouns: denote the name of a person, an animal, place or thing. (written with a capital letter)

• Common nouns can be divided into:  Countable & Uncountable 

Countable Nouns

Countable nouns can be counted.

Can be used in the plural.

-> table  -> tables

-> girl      -> girls

-> chair  -> chairs

Uncountable Nouns

Uncountable nouns can't be counted.

-> music

-> luggage

-> milk

-> rice

Countable Nouns

• The names of individual things, which can be counted.                                        ( a factory, a machine, a computer)
• Units of measurement (a meter, a kilo, a gallon)
• individual parts of a mass ( a piece of advice, a sheet of paper).

• Countable nouns have a singular and a plural form.
  
• We can use numbers and 'a/an' with countable nouns.
  
• They take determiners such as: many, these, those & several.

Uncountable Nouns

• Uncountable nouns  are the names of materials, liquids, abstract qualities and collections that cannot be counted.
• They have only one form.
• They do not have a plural form.
• We cannot use numbers with uncountable nouns and they usually cannot take 'a/an'.
• have words like much, little before them.
• Take the singular form of the verb.

Some uncountable nouns:

• money
• baggage
• news
• advice
• equipment
• accommodation
• information
• water

Some countable nouns:

• bottle
• duty free gifts
• days
• suitcase
• store
• reservation
• room
• lounge

How to make the plural.

• The plural of English nouns is regularly formed by adding -s:

        book -books

• The plural is formed by adding -es when the noun ends in a hissing sound: bus-buses, fish-fishes, ditch-ditches

• After -e only -s is added: bridge- bridges, change-changes

Plural of nouns ending in -y

When the noun ends in a consonant +y, the y changes into ie:

spy-spies

penny-pennies

party - parties

But: boy-boys

-> ends in a vowel + y!

Plural of nouns ending in -o

When the noun ends in a consonant + o, the plural is formed by adding -es:

hero-heroes, potato-potatoes, tomato-tomatoes

But: some nouns only add -s:

piano-pianos, kilo-kilos, photo-photos, memo-memos, euro-euros

Plural of nouns ending in -f/fe

-f/fe changes to -ves

calf-calves           life-lives

half-halves          wife-wives

self-selves           leaf- leaves

shelf-shelves     thief- thieves 

knife- knives      loaf-loaves

Irregular plurals

-vowel change:

• man-men
• woman-women 
• person - people
• foot-feet
• tooth-teeth
• louse-lice 
• mouse-mice

Irregular plurals

ending in -en:

• child-children
• ox-oxen

Singular & Plural

• Grammatically singular nouns take a singular verb.
• Grammatically plural nouns take a plural verb.

Examples:

The information (<-gram. singular noun) is free for access.

The personnel (<- gram. plural noun) are expected to have good contacts in the industry.

Some, Any, Much & Many

All these words tell us about quantity.

Some means: a number of / an amount of

Any is mostly used in negative sentences and in questions.

Much and many mean: a large quantity/ number of something.

Some & Any

Some	Any
-Affirmative sentences (+) - Countable nouns (plural) - Uncountable nouns	-Questions (?) -Negative sentences (-) -Uncountable nouns - Plural nouns

I need some new clothes. (+)

Do you have any coffee? (?)

I do not have any books about Accounting. (-)

Much & Many

Much	Many
Used with singular uncountable nouns	Used with plural countable nouns

How many cups of tea do you drink in the morning?

We have much work to do.

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