Uncountable Nouns Learn English Grammar
hi everybody my name is Alisha welcome
back to English class 101 comms YouTube
channel today I’m going to talk about
uncountable nouns I’m going to talk
about a few points related to
uncountable nouns and some words we can
use with uncountable nouns I’m going to
talk about the ways we can use units to
count parts of uncountable nouns and I’m
going to talk about some quantifiers and
some questions which we can use with
this grammar point so let’s get started
okay so the first point here about
uncountable nouns uncountable nouns are
nouns we cannot count so count a bowl
means able to count this prefix unn
means not the negative so not countable
nouns we cannot count we cannot use one
two or three to count numbers of these
nouns with uncountable nouns
we can use some determiner so
determiners are for example or an or the
this that my his and so on with
uncountable nouns we can use for example
this and that and we can use possessives
like my his her our and so on however we
cannot use a or an with uncountable
nouns this is because a and an are used
for the singular forms of nouns and we
don’t have a singular or plural form
necessarily for uncountable nouns so we
cannot use or an because these two
articles are used for singular forms so
please be careful of this some
determiners like this and that are fine
and possessives are okay but not a or an
okay also when you want to make a
general statement you should use no
determiner no determiner so know this
know that know the or whatever unless
you want to make a statement a general
statement about a specific group or a
specific object a specific mass entity
for example we’ll talk a little bit
about this later
so let’s take a look at some common
uncountable nouns then I’ve also
included here though their units so by
units I mean ways to count the parts of
these nouns so we cannot count these
nouns because they’re sort of they’re
thought of as like a mass they’re
thought of as kind of a group or yeah a
group or an assembly of many many
different parts so we don’t count the
the group itself the mass itself however
we can count the parts within that group
so let’s take a look at the first
example maybe the most important one
time so time is an uncountable noun we
don’t count one time two times or three
times we don’t do that however we count
parts of time measurements of time so
for example all of these are countable
nouns seconds minutes hours days weeks
months years decades millennia these are
all the countable nouns we use to count
the parts of time we cannot count time
we can count the parts of time only
let’s look at one more example money so
money we cannot count money one money to
money three money we don’t do that
instead we count the parts for example
cents dollars yen pounds euro pesos for
example we use the currency the type of
money and the denominations the pieces
or the parts within that that that
currency to count so we cannot count
money but we can count the the type of
money we can count currency amounts okay
another couple that are fairly common
are beer and wine so drinks for example
we don’t count beer necessarily as a
group we can say one beer to refer to
one drink of beer we can say that
however but in general for liquid when
you see a lot of liquid we don’t say one
beer to beer instead we counted by the
serving so for example with beer we use
glasses pints half pints mugs kegs
growlers these are a few ways that we
can
count beer these are all countable nouns
a similar rule applies to wine we don’t
say really one wine two wines we can use
that to mean one single drink but there
are sometimes different ways that we
need to explain one so we use these
words glasses or bottles or decanters so
we use decanter of wine bottle of wine
in these cases not one wine or two wines
make sure to say like bottle or decanter
to refer specifically to the type of
measurement you need another very common
example is clothes so clothes is kind of
a category of items it’s a type of item
there there are many different kinds of
clothes so we count for example shirts
sweaters socks shoes hats pairs of pants
we don’t say one clothes - clothes three
clothes instead we count these smaller
items inside the category of clothes ok
just a couple more examples food is
another very very big one so food itself
we don’t really say one food - food
three food instead we count inside food
for example snacks drinks salads
appetizers pizzas breadsticks cakes
whatever so the the food the dish itself
we couch the dish but not food as a
category finally air is another one we
don’t count air with numbers we can
count parts of air but if you want to
know we can use for example molecules to
talk about components pieces of air if
you like so these are just a few
examples of uncountable nouns and some
of the unit’s we can use to count the
parts within those uncountable nouns ok
next let’s head over to how to make a
few questions so similar to countable
nouns we can use uncountable nouns to
make information questions to make
requests to make offers but one key
point here is when you’re asking a
quantity question with an uncountable
noun you need to use much so when you’re
using a countable now and you should use
how many plus the plural form if you’re
using an
countable noun you need to use how much
plus your noun how much time how much
money how much beer for example there’s
no s to add at the end there’s no plural
form that we need to think about just
the uncountable noun and any other
information how much beer did you drink
how much time do you have for example so
please use much when you’re making a
question with an uncountable noun second
do you plus a verb any plus your
uncountable noun so we can change this
verb in the sentence depending on what
we need but this is a general
information question like do you need
any time or do you need any new clothes
for example so we just used the
uncountable noun here at the end of this
phrase to make an information question
another common pattern would be a
request so can I have some bla bla bla
can I have some wine can I have some
food of course you can use a unit here
if you like if you want to be specific
but if you want to be general mmm like
can I have some more time on this
project we can use an uncountable noun
in this sentence pattern as well of
course there are many different sentence
patterns but these are a few questions
that might be helpful for you ok let’s
look at the last thing for today
quantifiers quantifiers so we use
quantifiers to talk about amounts of
nouns in this case I’m going to talk
about some quantifiers we can use to
talk about the amounts of uncountable
nouns so we can use first at the end of
the spectrum here at around like zero
I’ve kind of made a scale here from zero
a like know of something there’s no
amount there’s zero of something to a
lot of something 100 at the other end
I’ve made kind of a scale of a few
quantifiers so here we can say no I have
no time we can use don’t plus a verb
plus any like I don’t have any time mmm
also is over here at the zero part we
can say I have almost no time meaning
very very little
for example so very little and almost no
would go about here here we can say not
much I have not in parentheses because
you just need to use the negative form I
don’t have much time or I don’t need
much to drink for example so we can use
much here but we need to use a negative
in this case we can also use hardly any
with uncountable nouns so I have hardly
any time to work on this project or I
have hardly any wine in my refrigerator
for example we can use a bit of I have a
bit of beer to drink a small amount so I
have a small amount of time this
afternoon if you’re free we have a
decent amount of so oh there’s a decent
amount of time this afternoon if that’s
better for you we can use some as well
some again is kind of vague it’s not so
clear the quantity with some but if you
just want to refer to having some have
it making it available you can use some
so like we might say I have some clothes
I want to throw away we can use lots of
and a lot of so I drank a lot of beer
last night or I drank a lot of wine last
night it might be a common sentence you
can hear we can use quite a lot of quite
a lot of so I have quite a lot of time
this weekend let’s do something we have
the casual tons of and a bunch of - so I
have tons of time or I have a bunch of
new clothes to try on for example and we
can also use all all so you could say
who drink all the beer or who ah let’s
see there’s another example mmm someone
took all my clothes for example we can
use all with uncountable nouns as well
so again these are just a few examples
of some expressions you might hear with
uncountable nouns you’ll see - as with
countable nouns we can use some of these
as I’ve marked with the green star here
some of these are okay to use with
countable nouns and uncountable
double nouns so if you get stuck you can
try to remember which ones are are okay
for both countable and uncountable nouns
for example lots of and a lot of some is
good almost no is pretty handy pretty
useful as well another point here I want
to mention this is a problem that many
students have is using much in positive
statements of quantity for example I
have much money I have much time we
cannot use much in this way we should
use I have a lot of time I have quite a
lot of time much is used with negatives
so I don’t have much time for example I
don’t have much money we can only use
much for a quantity statement with a
negative form so please don’t use much
to make a positive statement about
quantity please be careful this is a
very common mistake all right but those
are a few points I wanted to make about
uncountable nouns today if you have any
questions or comments or you want to try
making an example sentence please feel
free to do so in the comment section
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