Countable vs. Uncountable Nouns

What are countable nouns?

Countable nouns are nouns that can be counted as individual units or discrete entities. They have both singular and plural forms. The vast majority of nouns in English at countable nouns.

What are uncountable nouns?

Uncountable nouns, also known as mass nouns, are nouns that cannot be counted as separate units or discrete entities because they represent substances, concepts, or qualities that are considered as a whole. They typically do not have plural forms.

Since the majority of nouns are countable, a good starting place is to identify common uncountable nouns to avoid common errors.

+100 Common Uncountable Nouns

1. Advice
2. Air
3. Alcohol
4. Butter
5. Cheese
6. Clothing
7. Coffee
8. Confidence
9. Courage
10. Dirt
11. Education
12. Electricity
13. Energy
14. Flour
15. Freedom
16. Furniture
17. Garlic
18. Gasoline
19. Happiness
20. Homework
21. Honesty
22. Honey
23. Ice
24. Information
25. Ink
26. Intelligence
27. Jewelry
28. Knowledge
29. Love
30. Luggage
31. Milk
32. Money
33. Music
34. News
35. Noise
36. Oil
37. Oxygen
38. Paper
39. Pasta
40. Patience
41. Pepper
42. Permission
43. Photography
44. Pollution
45. Pork
46. Power
47. Progress
48. Rain
49. Research
50. Rice
51. Sadness
52. Salt
53. Sand
54. Sauce
55. Shopping
56. Sleep
57. Soap
58. Software
59. Soup
60. Speech
61. Spelling
62. Sugar
63. Tea
64. Time
65. Toothpaste
66. Traffic
67. Trust
68. Truth
69. Understanding
70. Unity
71. Vinegar
72. Violence
73. Vocabulary
74. Water
75. Wealth
76. Weather
77. Wheat
78. Wisdom
79. Work
80. Writing
81. Youth
82. Zeal
83. Equipment
84. Evidence
85. Feedback
86. Furniture
87. Grass
88. Hardware
89. Homework
90. Humor
91. Ice
92. Iron
93. Jam
94. Jelly
95. Justice
96. Kindness
97. Knowledge
98. Laughter
99. Leather
100. Literature
101. Love
102. Luck
103. Machinery
104. Makeup
105. Meat
106. Milk
107. Mist
108. Money
109. Music
110. News
111. Nutrition

Knowledge Check: Question Tags

Part 1: Identifying Countable and Uncountable Nouns

Instructions: Read each word and determine if it is a countable (C) or uncountable (U) noun. Write C or U next to each word.

1. Apple ______
2. Bread ______
3. Water ______
4. Cheese ______
5. Milk ______
6. Sugar ______
7. Eggs ______
8. Butter ______
9. Juice ______
10. Rice ______
11. Pasta ______
12. Cake ______
13. Orange ______
14. Flour ______
15. Yogurt ______

Part 2: Countable or Uncountable?

Instructions: Look at the following sentences. Decide if the underlined noun is countable (C) or uncountable (U). Write C or U next to each sentence.

1. I bought three apples at the store.
2. Would you like some cheese with your crackers?
3. She drank a glass of milk before bed.
4. Could you pass me the butter, please?
5. There is too much sugar in this recipe.
6. We need to buy some eggs for breakfast.
7. He ate two slices of bread for lunch.
8. Let's have some orange juice with breakfast.
9. Do you have any rice left in the pantry?
10. The children love to eat pasta with tomato sauce.

Part 3: Writing Exercise

Instructions: Write a sentence for each of the following countable and uncountable nouns.

1. Apple:

   • Example: I ate an apple for a snack.

2. Milk:

3. Cake:

4. Bread:

5. Rice:

6. Cheese:

7. Eggs:

8. Juice:

9. Pasta:

10. Sugar:

Ready to See the Answers?

Answers:

Part 1:

1. Apple (C)
2. Bread (C)
3. Water (U)
4. Cheese (U)
5. Milk (U)
6. Sugar (U)
7. Eggs (C)
8. Butter (U)
9. Juice (U)
10. Rice (U)
11. Pasta (U)
12. Cake (C)
13. Orange (C)
14. Flour (U)
15. Yogurt (U)

Part 2:

1. C
2. U
3. C
4. U
5. U
6. C
7. C
8. U
9. U
10. C