Learn English about countable nouns and uncountable nouns

okay you gotta take yourself off though danny

okay hello everyone uh thank you so much for  joining today i am so sorry we are a few minutes  

late we were having some computer problems so but  here we are now so welcome to today's live stream  

so today we are going to learn about countable  and uncountable nouns so this is something that  

can be very useful it's a grammar point that has  a few different ways that we can use it and we'll  

see why and how it is important so as always as  you watch the lesson please make sure to comment  

your questions or concerns uh english questions in  the comment section and after the lesson i will go  

through and answer some of your questions so you  can leave a question at any time and then after  

the lesson i will answer your questions or try to  so i see we have some hellos in the comments uh so  

i see uh hello from lolly lolly on youtube hello  lolly lolly thank you so much uh i whoa i see

a very big comment maybe that's  not the one we want to look at um

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hello um i'm so happy to see you here today so  let's not wait any longer let's go ahead and begin  

our lesson okay so i'm going to share my screen  okay guys you should see my screen now okay  

so let's go ahead and really  get started on our lesson um so  

today as i mentioned we are going to be  talking about countable and uncountable nouns  

um so just a moment just want to make sure that  everything is as it should be um yes okay great so  

today we are going to learn about some different  kinds of nouns countable and uncountable so one of  

the reasons this is an important point is because  it it changes if we are going to say how many or  

how much and there are some other words that  change depending on if we use a countable noun  

or an uncountable noun so let's begin  with the simple question what is a noun  

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

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  

my friend my 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 supermarket and so on  

qualities like softness or  happiness are nouns ideas  

like the word justice or uh 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  

um 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 so let's  

begin with number one teacher can i count teachers  can i say one teacher five teachers ten teachers  

yes i can this means teacher is a countable

noun so if you watched last week's live stream  where we talked about prefixes and suffixes  

we learned that the suffix abol means can so  countable means it's something you can count  

we can count teachers right 10 teachers  100 teachers 10 million teachers  

we can count it how about number two rain can i  say there is one rain or two rains or 10 rains

no we cannot count rain we might just say  there's a lot of rain or some rain or no rain  

this means that rain is uncountable so again if  we look at our prefix and suffix we know that  

hubble means can and on means not so uncountable  means we can not count it so rain is uncountable  

okay let's take a look at number three restaurant  

can we count restaurants 10 restaurants  50 restaurants yes we can so restaurant is

can i say i have uh one homework  today or 10 homeworks today  

so it may seem like it but actually  

this is uncountable we just say i have a lot of  homework i have a little homework no like 140  

guys i'm so sorry yeah please wait i know what  i mean a woman is just guaranteed a white woman

very sorry about this uh today

so are you danny your sound  and video is on right now

guys very sorry about the uh  the technical difficulties today  

let's go ahead and continue in our lesson  very sorry about that let's go ahead and try  

again okay so i'm gonna pull  up my screen one more time

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all right here we go so back  to our lesson uh so here we see

uh we went through that teacher is countable rain  is uncountable restaurant is countable okay there  

we go good glad to see the powerpoint is back  up 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 and 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 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 uh 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 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 or  

you can download this powerpoint alright  next let's take a look at uncountable nouns  

uncountable nouns cannot be counted so remember  can not count so these are words like rain  

homework and happiness like we saw in our table  so with uncountable nouns we have different  

quantifiers i cannot say i have 10 happiness or  32 homework right but i can use the look at the  

rain i can use much little a little bit of or some  i have some homework uh i have a little homework  

and again we see those words that i as i mentioned  we can use for countable or uncountable nouns  

all any lots of plenty of and enough finally  with uncountable nouns we can also use  

exact measurements like one tablespoon or three  millimeters like this for example i could say  

there were three millimeters of rain yesterday  right i can use an exact measurement but not  

numbers like one two or three alone it has to  have a measurement like tablespoon millimeter

miles uh kilometers and so on okay so let's take  a look at these so remember with countable nouns  

we use how many but with uncountable nouns  we use how much how much so let's look at  

our examples how much pollution is there or is  there much pollution so here our noun is pollution  

i cannot count pollution i can say uh there  is some pollution there's a lot of pollution  

but i can't say oh there there is 100 pollution  today right let's look at how we could answer  

there is not a lot of pollution here is  there much no there isn't much so here we see

that we are not answering with  a number right there's not a lot  

i could also use an exact measurement today  uh the pollution level is um 50 ppm this is an  

exact measurement we would use right we can use  that but we can't just say there's 10 pollution  

right and if we ask is there much no there isn't  much yes there's a lot and uh one thing we'll see  

as we move on is with the question is there much  we always use is okay so how much crime is there  

is there much crime there is a lot of crime in  the city is there much crime yes there's a lot  

let's take a look at noise how much noise  another noun we cannot count i can't say there  

is a 100 noise right no i can say there is  some noise is there much yes there is a little  

so remember words like a little some a lot these  are words we can use with uncountable nouns  

and last how much traffic is there or is  there much traffic there is no traffic  

or there isn't any so we can see that there are  a few ways we can answer no is there much no  

there isn't much this means there's some there's a  little if there's none we can say there isn't any  

okay so here if we notice we're not using numbers  right and there's no s on the end of these  

uncountable nouns either because we  cannot count them i can't say pollutions  

or uh noise well i could say noises but uh that  would be in a different way all right so let's go  

ahead and take a look we're gonna do some examples  so here we have eight nouns we're gonna decide are  

they countable or uncountable and then c would we  use how many or how much so first we have apples  

apples are countable one way that i know  is because when it's plural i add an s  

this means i can count them so i might ask  a question like how many apples are there

let's take a look at shoes so what do you think  can i count shoes yes i can and one way again that  

we can know is with that s so i might say how many  shoes are in the store with countable nouns we use  

how many right how many okay let's take  a look at the noun food can i count food  

you might think so and we can count items of food  like apples or slices of pizza or mmm chips right  

but just the noun food is actually uncountable  i can only say something like i have  

some food i have a lot of food i can't  say i have 10 food so here i would use  

how much how much food did you eat  next let's take a look at students  

students are countable right we have that s  so i use how many how many students go here

next the noun fun so i might say are you having  fun for example so here would this be countable or  

uncountable can i say i have 10 fun no i can  only use words like some a lot or a little so  

i would use how much how much fun did you have i  had a lot of fun right i can't say i had 100 von  

next we see the word pollution which we saw  in our uncountable example so i might ask a  

question like how much pollution is in the  air today so i might say there's a lot of  

pollution today there's not much pollution  today there isn't any pollution today  

all right next let's take a look at  books so here with books we see an s  

this is our little hint that it is countable  how many books will you read this year  

and finally money hmm this is a tricky one so  can i say oh yes i have 10 money or 100 money  

actually money is an uncountable  noun i can use an exact amount  

like what i'm talking about dollars or like this  a hundred dollars but if i'm just using the noun  

money this is uncountable how much money is  in the safe there's a lot of money there's  

a little money there's one thousand  dollars in the safe an exact amount  

so as you see this can be a little bit  tricky but one hint remember to look for s  

right our countable nouns here all have s which is  usually or most often a sign that it's countable  

but of course even though we have these rules  there are exceptions some nouns might be countable  

in your language but are uncountable in english  which means they have to follow the rules for  

uncountable nouns which means using how much  and those words like uh sum not many and so on  

or not much not any and so on so here are some of  the most common nouns that might look like they're  

countable but they're actually uncountable so  these includes the words accommodation advice  

baggage behavior bread furniture hair  information luggage news progress traffic  

travel trouble weather hit and work so you  guys can go ahead and look through these  

uh so some of these we already saw like  traffic i said uh is there much traffic  

there is no traffic or there is some  traffic so we wouldn't say traffics  

also with the word hair this is a common mistake  that uh language english learners will make  

i would say something like you have a lot of  hair not something like you have many hairs  

right we use it as an uncountable noun so let's  see an example sentences with some of these words  

i would like to give you some advice  

i cannot say one advice or two advices  some advice a little advice a lot of advice

how much bread should i bring i wouldn't say  how many breads i would say how much bread  

you should bring two loaves  of bread remember we can use  

exact amounts exact measurements  or you should bring a little bread

i didn't make much progress today  he has a lot of hair on his arm

we did a little work yesterday so notice that with  each of these we cannot add s right if we're using  

it as a noun like this so this means we have to  use the rules of uncountable nouns using words  

like some much a lot or a little all right  so now that we have had a great opportunity  

to see some words that are countable some words  that are uncountable and some exceptions let's  

just quickly look through this example and try to  see if we can quickly decide to use much or many  

alright so let's take a look at our nouns  here we have stars people birds water money  

countries bread bones sand and information so  let's see are these countable or uncountable  

so stars we have an s right i can  count stars these are countable  

people can i say there are 10 people or 100 people  yes i can they are countable how about birds  

there again we see our s they are countable  so this means our first three because they  

are countable we would use how many how many  stars how many people how many birds because  

these are things we can count let's take a look  at our next two here we have water can i say ah  

i have 10 water in my cup no i can say i have some  water uncountable and for number five we see money  

now i can use an exact measurement but i can't  say i have 10 monies right so also uncountable  

this means we use much how much water is in the  ocean a lot of water how much money is in the bank  

not much right okay next we have countries we see  our s this is countable there are 50 countries  

uh in this area right how many next we see bread  so if you remember bread was one of our exceptions  

it is uncountable how much bread bones we  have are s it's countable we use how many  

number nine we see sand can i count sand there's  10 sand 100 sand this is uncountable how much sand  

and the same is true for the noun information it  is uncountable i can say i have some information  

a lot of information but i can't say i have  10 information right so uncountable so the  

last thing we're going to look at is the  subject verb agreement when we use a plural  

we use r and when we use singular we use is right  countable nouns can take singular or plural verbs  

for example our neighbor is singing at the  competition tonight or our neighbors are singing  

right our neighbors are countable so i can use  is or are but uncountable nouns are considered  

singular which if you remember means one and only  take singular verbs the furniture needs to be  

replaced so we use the furniture our uncountable  noun as like the word it it needs to be replaced  

my luggage has been checked in so even if i  have a lot of luggage i still use luggage the  

noun as a singular which is why i would use  has instead of have or needs instead of need

one the last tip we'll look at today  sometimes uncountable nouns end with s  

so you might think they should  be plural but they're uncountable  

so they still use a singular verb for example  news the news is not good or mathematics  

is a very important subject so news  and mathematics are uncountable  

they end in s always there but it doesn't mean  it's plural that's just the word that's just uh  

the word just ends in an s so be careful about  that and always look and ask can i count can  

i say i have 10 news's or 30 mathematicses  no it is uncountable so we use the singular  

ending okay guys that's it for our lesson today  thank you so much for tuning in and let's see  

if we have any questions so here i saw  thank you for explaining uh yes you are  

you're very welcome i'm very glad i see a lot of  examples a lot of you guys thank you so much for

i see a comment uh up here at 9 21 from shahidah  how many money money should be countable  

so again if we look at the example of money money  is the noun money is uncountable i cannot say how  

many money i would say how much money that's right  thank you lolly lolly i would say how much money  

and why because uh i cannot say i have 10 money  i have 100 money right i can't count the noun  

money i can use the noun dollars or pennies or  quarters to talk about money and that is countable  

i can say i have ten dollars one two three four  five six seven eight nine ten dollars that noun  

is countable but the noun money is uncountable  there's a lot of money there's a little money i  

might never be able to borrow this amount of money  yeah very good and as we see in your sentence  

we're not using monies right we're not adding an  s to that it's an uncountable noun okay let's see

uh

how uh thank you could you teach us how to  use the word equal what the word equal means  

um equal means two things are the same so uh this  could mean there are some different uses for this  

i could say for example often equal is used in  math one plus one equals two uh or if i say two  

people are equal it means they are the same not  their personality is the same but this might mean  

they have the same opportunities or the same  rights the same ability to do things they are  

equal they are uh they have the same uh rights  or let's say i have a business and i have  

uh two managers right they are equal they have  the same amount of power so usually if we are  

using equal in a sentence to talk about  people it means they have the same amount of  

something power responsibility rights and so on  okay let's see if we have any other questions

um let's see just looking through

oh someone asked how about human we just got  that comment countable or uncountable well  

can i say one human two humans three humans  i can so human is a countable noun thank you  

so much uh malik for your uh your question that  would be countable just like person is countable  

one person two people and actually i did see a  comment i think from our regular viewer alyssa  

um about seeing the word persons so sometimes  this this is actually has a different meaning  

and i also saw someone ask about the word fish  um so usually these words like person a person  

is usually a countable noun right one person  two people many people 100 people 1 000 people  

if i am describing um people from different  countries for example maybe i have french people  

and um uh ethiopian people and chinese people and  so on i might describe them as peoples peoples of  

different countries because they are uh a group of  people right so if i'm looking at different groups  

of people i might say peoples or persons so that  those are good questions that's something that um  

perhaps we'll talk about more next week and  the same is true of fish usually fish is um  

used the same it is countable i can say i have one  fish two fish ten fish um and usually we don't add  

s to that unless we're talking about different  kinds of fish so let's say just like if i have  

french people ethiopian people and chinese  people altogether i might say peoples  

of different countries the same is true let's  say i have 10 salmon 10 tuna and 10 sharks  

i would say i have now i have fishes  because they're many different kinds  

but if it's just one kind i just keep it  the simple fish so that that's a tricky one  

that's something that we could actually do a whole  lesson on yes i see uh edgard wrote fish fish yes  

very good okay so well guys i think i'm  gonna just look through one more time to see  

thank you guys so much for your comments and  questions and i love to see as we're going through  

examples like that when you type the answers  much many how many thank you guys so much i  

really like seeing that you're practicing with  the lesson because that is a great way to learn  

okay so here we'll talk about one more question so  someone commented alyssa commented how many times  

or how much time oh this is a good one so time  it can it has can have two different meanings  

so if i'm talking about time like  one hour two hours the time of day  

that is uncountable i can't say i have 10  time i can say i have a lot of time i don't  

have much time where i have some time today  some free time right so time if we're talking  

about like a clock is uncountable but there's  another meaning for time which means like um  

try to do something so and this is countable  and i could say how many times so for example  

if i say how let's say your computer is broken  and you keep trying to fix it and you have tried  

10 times so this is how many uh what number of  it's hard to say without you how many times you  

tried it's difficult to uh describe without  using the word times it's uh the number of  

uh tries so if i say for example how many  times have you tried to fix your computer  

i have tried 10 times so it can it depends  on the noun time like tick tock tick tock  

uncountable times like tries how many times  have you been to um new york how many times  

have you seen your friends in the last week  oh five times ten times that's countable  

but clock time is uncountable so thank  you for that great question okay guys  

we're gonna wrap up thank you for your questions  so you guys i i love seeing your questions because  

they uh show that wow there are so many lessons  that we can do even about something that  

seems as simple as countable or uncountable  nouns so thank you so much for your questions  

thank you for participating in the lesson  asking questions answering when when we were  

going through how much how many uh thank you so  much for participating for asking your questions  

you guys are awesome so uh let's uh let's  wrap it up then okay guys that's it for today  

you can continue to comment uh we'll try to  always look at your questions and answer them  

in the future and if not then we'll see you  next week okay bye everyone see you next week

let's see