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 below if you liked this video please

make sure to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to our channel if you haven't

already check us out at English class 101.com for more good stuff too thanks

very much for watching this episode and I will see you again soon