Countable and Uncountable Nouns

Countable Nouns

Countable nouns are things that we can count. For example: apples.

Countable nouns can be singular or plural:

There is an apple. There are two apples.

Questions and Answers with Countable Nouns

Look at the table below which shows how to use countable nouns.

	Singular	Plural
Questions	Is there an apple?	Are there any apples?
Positive Answer	There is an apple.	There are two apples. There are some apples.
Negative Answer	There is no apple. There isn’t an apple.	There are no apples. There aren’t any apples.

Notice how we can ask questions with singular and plural nouns.

If we ask questions with plural nouns:

We use any in questions and negative sentences.

We use some in positive sentences.

We can also use no negative sentences.

We can also use the following words with countable nouns:

A few ( 2 or 3)

We usually only use this in positive answers: There are a few apples.

A lot of

We can use this in questions, positive and negative answers:

Are there a lot of apples? There are a lot of apples. There aren’t a lot of apples.

Many

We can use this in questions, positive and negative answer. BUT the positive form is very formal. It is better to use a lot of in the positive form.

Are there many apples? There are many apples. There aren’t many apples.

Uncountable nouns are things we can’t count. For example: sugar.

We usually treat uncountable nouns as singular. We use a singular verb.

There is some sugar. NOT There is a sugar. X

Questions and Answers with Uncountable Nouns

We use any in questions and negative sentences.

We use some in positive sentences.

We can also use no negative sentences.

The table below shows how to use uncountable nouns.

	Singular
Questions	Is there any sugar?
Positive Answer	There is some sugar.
Negative Answer	There isn’t any sugar. There is no sugar.

We can also use the following words with uncountable nouns:

A little/a bit of

We usually only use this in positive answers: There is a little sugar.

A lot of

We can use this in questions, positive and negative answers:

Is there a lot of sugar? There is a lot of sugar. There isn’t a lot of sugar.

Much

We can use this in questions, positive and negative answer. BUT the positive form is very formal. It is better to use a lot of in the positive form.

Is there much sugar? There is much sugar. There isn’t much sugar.

Click on the links below to learn more about Nouns - Countable and Uncountable