Learn English countable nouns in English grammar - Countable nouns meaning

a noun is a part of speech so like a verb or an  adjective like this a noun is a part of speech in  

uh every language so a noun is a word that  is used to reference or refer to a thing  

like the word book pencil cup tree a  person like teacher sarah you right  

um my friend my uh teacher my doctor and so on  those are all nouns animals cat dog horse chicken  

places place names like new york or places like  house um supermarket and so on qualities like  

softness or happiness are nouns ideas like the  word justice or some actions like uh yodeling or  

running things like this that may look like verbs  but we can also use them as nouns in sentences for  

example if i say i like running in that sentence  running would be a noun so this is something we've  

talked about before house actions can be nouns  but usually in english we say a noun is a person  

place or thing and or an animal so let's keep  that in mind as we move forward what is a noun  

so nouns can be countable or uncountable so let's  take a look uh what does it mean to count counting  

of course is uh when we see how many of something  there are one two three four five this is counting  

there are some things we can count and some  things some nouns that we cannot count so  

let's go ahead and go through and see these here  we have six nouns so can we count these things  

uh we went through that teacher  is countable rain is uncountable  

restaurant is countable homework uncountable right  we cannot count computer now can we count computer  

can i say i have 10 computers and 11 computers yes  computer is a countable noun last we have equality  

happiness this is a noun right something uh you  can have so can i say that i have 10 happinesses  

no so here we see the difference between nouns  that we can count and nouns we cannot count so  

let's go ahead and talk about these bit by bit  so first let's take a little bit of a closer look  

at countable nouns so as i mentioned countable  nouns are nouns that can be counted like  

teacher restaurant or computer so here's  a tip how can you know a noun is countable

countable nouns usually become plural  by adding s so if you don't know  

what does this word mean plural plural is  when we have more than one of something so  

if i have one cup that is singular because there  is one plural i have two cups more than one right  

so countable nouns like cup usually become plural  by adding s so for example teacher would become  

teachers restaurants computers this is one tip  for if we know that nouns are countable now not  

every countable noun can we add s to for example  the word man is a countable noun but we don't say  

man's we say men right so countable nouns usually  become plural by adding s but remember uh in in  

a case like this word man men person people woman  woman uh women then you cannot add s it just means  

uh it's a tip you can look for so with countable  nouns and uncountable nouns there are some words  

we can use before with countable nouns and some  that we can only use with uncountable nouns  

uh for example as we saw on the last slide  i cannot use a word like a number with an  

uncountable noun i cannot say i have 10 rain  right i can't use numbers so there are different  

quantifiers or words that describe how much  of something i can use with countable nouns  

versus uncountable nouns so for example  with countable nouns things we can count  

i can use the words a and in the a restaurant the  computer i can use numbers like one two or three  

one teacher two restaurants three computers i  can use words like a few few and fewer there  

are a few restaurants in this city there are  fewer restaurants in that town over there  

i can use the words a lot many and several  there are many computers in the computer lab  

several teachers are going on vacation next  week i can also use these words all some  

any lots of plenty of and enough so these  we can actually use with both countable and  

uncountable nouns so they're good words to  use in any case some teachers uh teach math  

lots of restaurants around here are busy today  and there are enough computers for everyone to use  

so here we have a quick list of the  quantifiers we can use with countable nouns  

so let's take a look at how we use these in  a sentence so with countable nouns we use the  

question how many so remember many is a word we  can only use with countable nouns so it also is  

our question how many so we're going to look  at some different examples of sentences using  

how many countable and uncountable nouns  so let's begin here we have the question  

how many restaurants are there we could  also ask are there many restaurants  

and to answer how many restaurants  are there there are three restaurants  

are there many yes there are a few so here we  see the two basic question forms we can use with  

countable nouns how many or are there many there  are three there are a few there are some right

number two how many apartment buildings are  there or are there many apartment buildings  

so how many sorry guys where's my there  we go uh how many are there there are  

10 apartment buildings are there many yes there  are a lot okay let's take a look at number three  

how many or are there many here we're looking at  swimming pools how many swimming pools are there  

there is one are there many now let's see what  happens when we are saying no no there aren't many  

there are not many there are just a few so  what are we noticing here often when we ask  

how many we want a specific number there  are three there are ten there is one  

and if we're asking are there many often  we use words like a few a lot or not many  

okay let's take a look at one more example how  many schools are here or are there many schools  

so this is a uh an example of when we don't have  to use a number we can also answer there are a lot  

of schools here or yes there are a lot of schools  so remember with countable nouns we use how many  

and to quantify the quantifiers before  our nouns we can use numbers like 3  

10 and 1 or words like a few a lot and many  so make sure you can rewind look at that list