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
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