Griffith English Language Institute
HELP Yourself Resource Transcript: Countability
In this video, we will look at noun countability and how this impacts on other aspects of grammar
in the sentence. One thing we need to know about nouns in English is whether we can count
them or not: some nouns are countable, some uncountable and some nouns can be both.
So let’s start with what you know.
Countable nouns refer to things that can be counted, such as books or chairs or people, and
they have both singular and plural forms. For countable nouns we can answer the question
“how many” with a number: ‘How many courses are you taking this semester? I’m taking four
courses’. Most nouns in English are countable.
Uncountable nouns often refer to abstract concepts such as love, wealth, music and hunger.
Uncountable nouns also refer to things that are made up of parts too numerous or small to
count, such as water, oil, air and rice. Academic examples of uncountable nouns include
knowledge, information and evidence. Everyday examples are: water, rice, coffee, air, oil, and
music.
Uncountable nouns do not have a plural form, for example, we say information but not
informations. Uncountable nouns thus take the singular form of the verb.
Different quantifiers are used with countable and uncountable nouns. For countable nouns, you
can use no/none, few, a few, some, many, most, a lot of, all. For uncountable nouns, you can
use no/none, not much, little, a little, some, a lot of, all. Notice the difference: few is used with
countable but little is used for uncountables. For example:

We conducted a few experiments
but

There is little experimentation in this area
There are many other quantifiers in English that you can use, so be sure to check a good
grammar book.
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Griffith English Language Institute
Countability is also important for determining which article, a, an, or the, can be used with a
noun. For example, you generally would not use a or an with an uncountable noun. Review the
section on Articles for more information about article usage and countability.
One last thing to be aware of: some nouns can be both countable and uncountable, depending
on their use. Examples include chocolate, paper, light, work, and hair. Countability often
depends on the context. For example, hair referring to all the hair on your head is uncountable.
However, hair referring to a single strand of hair is countable.
If you’re uncertain of the countability of a particular noun, check in a dictionary--it might say ‘C’
or ‘UNC’ to show this.
Knowing the countability of a noun is important for subject-verb agreement, and also to know
the quantifiers and articles that the noun can be used with. Review the exercises below as well
as the exercises on Subject-Verb Agreement and Articles.
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