Uncountable English Nouns Fix Common Grammar Mistakes Errors
Hello I’m Emma from mmmEnglish!
In this lesson we’re focusing on English nouns. Why?
Because so many of the mistakes that you’re making in English
are related to the way that you use nouns.
Starting from the top, there are two types of English noun
countable and uncountable English nouns.
Now, you might be thinking
“yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah… Whatever it doesn’t really matter!”
But actually, it does matter.
It really really does, for a whole lot of reasons!
Like, how to use articles correctly.
How to use ‘much’ and ‘many’, ‘so’ and ‘such’,
‘some’ and ‘any’ or ‘a little’ and ‘a few’.
These words all depend on the type of noun
and learning and understanding more about countable and uncountable nouns
and how they’re used differently
will dramatically improve your English grammar!
I guarantee you that some of the mistakes that you’re making in English
are because you are treating an uncountable noun like a countable noun,
or a countable noun like an uncountable noun!
Now, I’ve made a ‘cheat sheet’ to help you understand these rules
and I’m going to tell you how to
download it at the end of this lesson.
In this video we’re focusing on
uncountable nouns
but you can check out another video on countable nouns right
there.
Okay! So, the kitchen is a great place
to start talking about countable
and uncountable nouns.
It’s been a while since mmmEnglish has been in the kitchen,
so I’m very excited to be back here!
The easiest way to remember uncountable nouns
is to think about nouns that are difficult to count.
Things like liquids, water, or wine.
Gases the air,
or powders like flour.
Or things like electricity, money or abstract nouns like
happiness, motivation and luck.
Now, all of these nouns, if you think about it, are difficult to count.
Uncountable nouns have only one form.
They can’t be plural.
You can’t use ‘a’ or ‘an’ with uncountable nouns
because they can’t be counted.
You can’t use numbers with them at all.
We can’t say “I need a milk” or “give me 3
monies”.
But you can use some with uncountable nouns
and that just means ‘an amount’, but not a specific amount.
“Can you get some rice from the supermarket for me?”
We can also use uncountable nouns without ‘some’.
“Can you get rice from the
supermarket for me?”
(That’s) perfectly okay as well!
For example, to make pancakes I need
to make, I need to have some flour.
I need to have some sugar, some water
and maybe even some maple syrup.
All of these nouns are uncountable
but we do need a way to quantify these nouns,
especially when you’re cooking in the kitchen.
We need to know how much to use!
And that’s easy to do when you’re talking about countable nouns,
like ‘a lemon’ or ‘an apple’
but with uncountable nouns
you need another countable noun to help you quantify
your uncountable noun.
A packet of rice,
a cup of oil,
a can of coconut milk,
2 litres of water, for example.
And all of a sudden, all of these things can become countable!
Notice how I was using an article with all of those nouns?
Now, this is all great in the
kitchen but what about outside of the kitchen,
with nouns like information or
happiness or money, luggage, advice!
It’s the same idea! A piece of information,
a moment of happiness,
a bit of luck or a bit of money,
two pieces of luggage or
I’ve got three pieces of advice for you!
Let’s recap on uncountable nouns for a
moment.
They have only one form.
They’re never plural.
You can’t use
articles like ‘a’ or ‘an’ with them
and can’t use numbers.
You can’t say ‘an information’ or ‘two luggages’
or ‘three advices’.
Okay? Fabulous!
Don’t forget that you can download this worksheet
to help you practice using uncountable nouns correctly.
Now, there are some uncountable nouns that you’ll
see being used as plural nouns.
Eeeek!
But before you freak out,
these exceptions are related to the context
and just for a moment this is going to get a little bit confusing.
But be patient, stay calm!
I’m going to help you to understand right now!
Let’s use coffee as an example!
I’ve got some instant coffee here,
some coffee beans and of
course,
a delicious cup of coffee.
Now, the liquid is uncountable
and so is the powder that’s in instant coffee.
Now, you can count the
beans but that’s less common.
So, we need some other countable nouns
to tell us some more information about the noun.
A jar, a packet or a kilogram a cup.
But you might hear someone say
“I’ll have a coffee with two sugars please.”
Huh?
Coffee and sugar are both uncountable!
How can that be?
Well simply, the context will
tell us that
it means a cup of coffee
and two teaspoons of sugar.
The same if someone said “We’ll take three waters.”
It means three bottles of water or three
glasses of water.
So, how do you know if a noun is countable or uncountable?
It’s easy!
In the dictionary when you look up this word
you’ll see [U] or a [C] next to that noun.
It will tell you if it’s countable or uncountable
and instantly, you’ll know how you can use this noun,
especially once you download the
worksheet that’s going to help you.
It’s really important because remember
there’s lots of different words
that you can use in English
with uncountable nouns that you can’t use with countable nouns.
There’s a little water in my cup.
There’s a few waters in my cup.
There’s too much information.
There’s too many informations.
So, it’s really important that you’re using the correct
English word with these nouns.
Now, before I finish
I want to tell you some of the
biggest mistakes
that I see with uncountable nouns in English.
Advice, knowledge,
information, news,
luggage, equipment
and furniture
These are all uncountable nouns.
They have only one form.
So, that’s it for this lesson!
I hope that you’re feeling a little more confident
with uncountable nouns now.
Remember that you can watch the countable nouns
lesson, right here!
Make sure that you subscribe to my channel,
so that you never miss a lesson!
There’s a couple more lessons in this playlist
that you might enjoy too!
That’s it for now, but I will see you
again very soon!
Bye!