Countable and Uncountable Nouns Basic English Grammar

hi everybody my name is alicia in this

lesson i’m going to talk about some

nouns that can be used in

countable and uncountable ways i’m going

to introduce the noun

the different meanings for the noun and

also a few example sentences

so let’s get started okay first i want

to start

on this side of the board i’m focusing

over here

on food so we’re going to talk about

some very common

food related nouns that can be countable

or

uncountable let’s start with fruit fruit

so let’s look at the uncountable meaning

first and then the countable meaning

second so fruit as an uncountable noun

means food from a plant so this is food

usually with seeds inside or food that

comes from

a seed of some kind or it’s like the

fruit is

the seed of a plant so this is

generally known as fruit fruit the

uncountable meaning

for example do you like fruit do you

like fruit

so this is the uncountable sense of the

word

as a countable noun fruit means

a specific type of fruit

for example many fruits grow

in warm climates so warm climates means

a place that has a warm temperature

around the year or year round so many

fruits

that means many different types of

food from a plant many different kinds

of these many different examples of

fruit grow in warm

climates so this means any food that

grows in a warm climate or any fruit

that grows in a warm climate so we’re

talking about a specific

type when we use it as a countable noun

so some people might prefer

like um fruits that are

very sweet or some people prefer fruits

that are very sour so you might want to

talk about kind of

categories or very as i said specific

types to do that you can use fruit as a

countable

noun okay the next one is meat

meat so as a countable noun i’m sorry as

an uncountable noun

meat means food from a cow or a pig

or a chicken so food that comes from an

animal the parts of an animal we make

food from the parts of the animal so

for example she doesn’t eat meat

so in this sense as an uncountable noun

it means

the food that comes from the parts of an

animal so it’s made from the flesh of an

animal

as a countable noun again just like with

fruit

and fruits as a countable noun meat

refers to a specific type

of meat a specific kind of meat

for example some meats are healthier

than others some meats are healthier

than others

so that means inside the category of

meat

some types of meat or instead of saying

types of meat we say

some meats are healthier than others

so that might mean for example like

chicken or

maybe lean beef those things are

healthier than

pork for example i don’t know but this

is

how we would use meat as a countable

noun to refer to a

category or a specific group a specific

type

inside meat we use it as a countable

noun

okay on to the next one the next one is

chicken chicken

so yes i did mention that chicken is a

type of meat

but we also use chicken alone

as an uncountable noun it means meat

from

a chicken meat from a chicken where a

chicken

as we’ll talk about in a moment is a

bird so

when we use it as an uncountable noun we

use it to talk about just the meat

that comes from the bird for example

let’s get chicken

for dinner let’s get chicken for dinner

so this is as an

uncountable noun chicken when we use it

as a countable noun

it refers to a bird raised for eggs and

meat

so this is the animal in other words

when we say a chicken

or the chickens it refers to the animal

so that’s used as a countable noun for

example our family has

three chickens our family has three

chickens

we have to use the plural form here

chickens because we have three of them

so this is using it as a

countable noun to refer to the bird

this is as an uncountable noun it refers

to the food so this is a key difference

between chicken

and a chicken okay on to the next one

the next one

next two really are kind of groups the

first one this is

all for drinks so i’ve labeled this

drink

because we can use the same pattern for

all of these things so beer coffee tea

water juice whatever all of these things

we can use them as uncountable nouns to

just mean a drink

for example we drink a lot of

coffee so this coffee just means in

general

as a type of drink as a kind of drink we

could say we drink a lot of beer we

drink a lot of water a lot of juice

and so on this is as an uncountable noun

when we use one of these words as a

countable noun however

it means one serving so usually here

like a cup or a glass of a specific

drink so you’ll hear two

beers please two beers please that means

two

servings of beer or two waters please

you might hear

or two juices please so we use these

as countable nouns to mean one

serving or one portion of that drink

so when you’re speaking generally about

like likes or dislikes or your habits

perhaps

you can use it as an uncountable noun

when you’re ordering something at a

restaurant or you’re talking about

quantity you can use it as a countable

noun so just add an

s to the end of the noun here okay so

the same idea

applies to this last one in the food

group

i have bread cheese cake

you might also hear it used with pizza

as well so these

foods that are kind of they’re big and

we usually need to cut them or slice

them we need to make them smaller before

we serve them

we can use this kind of pattern these

kinds of patterns

to talk about them so all of these bread

cheesecake

these are all food items usually food

items that need to be

made smaller before we serve them as an

uncountable noun we use it in a sentence

like this

we need to buy bread we need to buy

cheese we need to buy cake or let’s get

some cake let’s get some cheese and so

on

this means generally that food i want

that

food in particular so we don’t we’re not

talking about the smaller parts or a

specific

type but when we use it as a countable

noun

it refers to a specific type

of that item so a specific type of bread

or a specific type of cheese a specific

type of cake for example some

cheeses are made with mold some cheeses

are made with mold like blue cheese for

example

so some cheeses you’ll see here i’ve

made

cheese plural by adding an s to the end

that means

inside the category of cheese some

types are made with mold

so we would not say some cheese are made

with mold we cannot use it in that sense

with the uncountable version

we need to use a countable so a plural

form of the noun we could talk about

bread as well in this way

like some breads take a long time to

make

some breads take a long time to make

that means

within the category of bread there are

some

types that take a long time to make

we can do the same thing with cake or

with pizza so yes it’s this uncountable

noun when we talk about it generally

we mean this uncountable noun but if we

want to talk about a specific

type or a specific category inside this

group

we use it as a countable noun this is

especially helpful when you’re talking

about flavors

or the way something is made okay let’s

continue on to the next side

the next side i have here food uh

yes this is generally to talk about

uh all types of food so as an

uncountable noun

we use the word food to talk about

everything that people eat everything

that animals

eat so things for people and animals to

eat

food as an uncountable noun however

when we use it as a countable noun we’re

talking about a specific

type of thing to eat so this follows the

same pattern as all of these

food related items well except maybe

chicken but it follows the same pattern

as these when we want to talk about a

specific

category inside food we can use it as a

countable

noun so as an uncountable noun we might

say something like i ate too much food

i ate too much food but as a countable

noun

you might say something like fried foods

are unhealthy fried foods are unhealthy

so why did we say fried foods are

unhealthy why not fried food

is unhealthy actually both sentences are

correct it’s totally fine

the difference fried foods this means

all types of food which are

fried are unhealthy so that means fried

chicken

or like french fries fried potatoes

anything dipped in oil and cooked at a

high temperature

all of those things are unhealthy so

this is why we use

fried foods we’re talking about

specifically

all things inside the category of fried

food so we can use

the plural form here but yes fried food

is unhealthy is also

okay to use so they communicate the same

idea

but you might hear something like this

as well

so if you want to talk about a specific

type of thing

you can use countable the countable

version to do that

you’ll hear this a lot when you’re

talking about like uh

diets and healthy eating and so on

people will say like try to include more

healthy foods in your diet

so that means try to include more food

that is healthy so it’s like a quicker

way to say that

okay on to the next one so the last

group here these are quite different

from the ones we’ve talked about before

next is glass glass so as an uncountable

noun it means

a material so glass is the thing that

like

windows are made of this window or the

window is made

of glass so it’s a material we use for

things

for cups or for glasses and so on

countable noun then i’ve just hinted at

it glass as a countable noun means an

object used for drinking liquid so as a

countable noun yes

please be careful this is not the same

as glasses that’s a separate situation

so we can use glasses to mean the things

we wear

on our faces to be able to see better

this is different so we don’t say

glasses is

for the accessory that we wear this one

is different

we use glasses to mean an object

used for drinking liquid so this is the

plural form

so one glass two glasses

bring two glasses from the kitchen

so that means two things for drinking

liquid from the kitchen

so material object for drinking liquid

these are very different

yes it’s true though sometimes you might

have

a glass that is made of glass

so in that sense you can use them

together

okay on to the next one time time so

time can be uncountable

or countable time as an uncountable noun

means the duration of something how long

something is so we use clocks to measure

time in a sentence we don’t have enough

time to have a meeting today we don’t

have enough time

so that means we don’t have enough space

in the day

so the duration is not long enough the

duration of

uh this day is not long enough

as a countable noun however it means the

number of

instances so for example i’ve traveled

overseas many times many

times so you use this when you’re

talking about your life experience for

example i’ve been there three times or

i’ve seen him four times today so times

in the plural form is used to talk about

the number of

instances the number of times the number

of instances

you have experienced something or maybe

the number of instances

you’re planning to experience something

in the future

so these two are quite different okay

the next one is work this is a very good

one to remember especially

if you are in creative related fields

as an uncountable noun work refers to

one’s

job so one here one means one person

oneself

so your job or your profession for

example

she’s at work right now i have to go to

work

and so on so that refers to your job

your

profession the thing you do for your

life

however as a countable noun work means

something made by a creative person

so this is like an artist a musician

an illustrator whatever kind of creative

work it is

i’ve just used it there we use work to

talk about the things that are

made by that person for example

i love the works of monet

i love the works of monet so works

here means the things created by

monet so the things created i use

the here because i’m talking

specifically about

the things monet made we don’t use i

love

a works here or i love a work by monet

unless you only want to talk about like

one specific thing

and you don’t remember the name so i

love the works of monet

or i saw a new work by some

up-and-coming artist

so you might hear it used uh in a

situation like that

generally we use work for

creative related things we don’t really

use this so much

for like maybe engineering or like math

or sciences stuff like that so we tend

to use this for

creative related things okay on to the

last one

pronunciation pronunciation important i

think for

everyone watching this channel

pronunciation as an

uncountable noun means the sounds made

when speaking a language so generally so

we have english pronunciation and

chinese pronunciation

and french pronunciation so those are

the sounds

made when we speak a certain language

for example

pronunciation practice is important

so those are the sounds that you make

when you make when you

are speaking a certain language however

as a countable noun

pronunciation means a specific way of

saying

a word or a sound

so for example in english we have like

british english

american english australian english

irish english scottish english

there are many different types of

english so

there are many different pronunciations

of the same word for example there are

two or three different

pronunciations of this word

so that means there are two or three

different ways of

saying this word so but we use

pronunciations

in the plural form to make that much

easier and shorter to say

so it means a specific way of saying a

word

or sound so you might see pronunciation

used as an uncountable noun or as a

countable noun

in your studies okay so i hope that this

was helpful for you

this is a maybe a good introduction

to some nouns that can be used in both

countable and

uncountable ways please keep in mind

there are more there are more but i

think that these are some very common

ones that you can practice

of course if you know of some other

nouns that are used in countable and

uncountable ways

please feel free to include those in a

comment to this video below

if you have any questions or comments or

any other things if you want to practice

making some sentences

you can please do that in the comments

of this video as well

so i hope that you enjoyed this lesson

thanks very much for watching

also if you did like it please don’t

forget to give it a thumbs up

subscribe to our channel if you have not

already and check us out at

englishclass101.com for some other

things that can help you with your

english studies

thanks very much for watching this

lesson and i will see you again soon bye