Name: _____________________ Date: ___________________

Countable and Uncountable nouns 1

Countable nouns
 We CANNOT use singular countable nouns alone, we need:
1) Articles: a, an, the: a apple, an apple, the apple
2) Determiners (tell you which one): that apple, this apple, every apple
3) Possessive adjectives: her apple, our apple
4) Quantity word: one apple
 Countable nouns have plural forms.
Add –es to nouns ending in ‘ss, s, ch, sh, x,’
class _____________ dish ____________ sandwich _______________
 Add –es to some nouns ending in ‘o’
tomato_____________ potato _____________
Not all:
*photo _______________ *radio _______________ *piano ________________

 Change nouns ending in consonant + y, to ‘ies’

country ______________ baby ________________ city ________________
story ________________family ______________

 Add -s for vowel + y

day _______________ boy ______________ bay ______________

 Irregular nouns
man ______________ fish ________________ sheep _______________
tooth _____________ foot _______________
mouse ______________ child _____________ person _____________

Name: _____________________ Date: ___________________

Countable and Uncountable nouns 2
Some nouns are always plural!
 Tools and clothes with two similar parts are plural nouns.
glasses trousers pants jeans
pajamas ( ) shorts scissors binoculars

1. Tom needs to wear his ________________ to see clearly.

2. You can use my ___________________ to cut the paper.

Uncountable nouns:
 Uncountable nouns do not have a plural form:
 1. I have a lot of rices at home.
  2. Milks is good for you.
 Uncountable nouns take a singular verb:
1. Orange juice __________ (is / are) yummy.
2. Water ____________ (is / are) important.

 Uncountable nouns cannot be used with a/an or a number:

We had an ice in the refrigerator. (We had ice in the refrigerator.)
I have two rice. ( I have two bowls of rice.)
 Some nouns have two meanings – one countable and one uncountable.
1. Hurry up! We don’t have much time. [Uncountable]
2. I have read this book four times. [Countable]

3. How many _____________ (time / times) do you go to the toilet every day?
 Use ‘some, much, any’ to talk about the quantity.
Please buy ____________ bread. We haven’t had __________ rain here since last week.
Ken spent too ____________ money on computer games. It took me so __________ time
to finish this project. There isn’t ___________ water left.

‘a few’ is not the same as ‘few’ :

 ‘a few’ means ‘some’. For countable nouns only.
E.g. I am going to buy a few apples.
______________________________________________________________________
 ‘few’ means ‘not many’. For countable nouns only.
E.g. I invited a lot of people but few came.
______________________________________________________________________
 ‘few’ or ‘a few’?
1. We saw a lot of birds and ____________ cats.
2. Lots of us want to go fishing but _____________ of us have the time.
3. It was a dreadful accident. ____________ passengers survived
Countable & uncountable Countable Uncountable
some a few a little
enough few little
any several
a lot of / lots of / plenty of many much