Unit 3: Countable and Uncountable Nouns

(A) Countable Nouns

1.    Countable nouns are things that can be counted.

Examples :

Marble           boy                  man                cup                 table

2.    Countable nouns are used with articles or quantifiers such as ‘a’, ‘an’, ‘few’, ‘a few’, ‘many’ and ‘some’. These words (articles or quantifiers) come before the countable nouns.

Examples :

A girl                          few people                a few books

An elephant             some girls                  many trees

(B) Uncountable Nouns

1.    Uncountable nouns are names of things that cannot be counted.

Examples :

Sand              happiness                 air                    noise              salt                  smoke

2.    Uncountable nouns are used with the articles ‘the’ or determiners such as ‘much’, ‘a little’ and ‘some’. Uncountable nouns do not have plurals.

Examples :

Much salt                   a little joy                    some music

Much time                 a little noise               some news

3.    Some nouns can be countable or uncountable depending on how they are used.

Exercise

Choose the correct answer.

1)    _______________ is added to make the porridge tastier.

(a)   A little salt

(b)   Much salt

(c)   A few salt

(d)   Many sugar

2)    Do you want ______________ or _______________?

(a)   an orange, a tomato

(b)   an orange, an tomato

(c)   a orange, an tomato

(d)   a oranges, a tomato

3)    I want to drink _______________ to quench my thirst.

(a)   a water

(b)   a few water

(c)   little water

(d)   a glass of water

4)    Since 2006, there were only _____________ old ___________left in this village.

(a)   a few, house

(b)   a little, houses

(c)   a few, houses

(d)   a little, house

5)    Miss Wong drew ____________ on the whiteboard.

(a)   a little squares

(b)   much squares

(c)   many square

(d)   a big square

6)    We have ___________ at home.

(a)   a wooden chairs

(b)   an wooden chair

(c)   many wooden chair

(d)   a few wooden chairs

7)    Encik Yusop wants ______________ in his coffee.

(a)   a sugar

(b)   few sugar

(c)   much sugar

(d)   a little sugar

8)    Wei Ni saw _____________ at the zoo.

(a)   many wild animals

(b)   much wild animals

(c)   a little wild animals

(d)   a wild animals

9)    Tian Keat snapped _____________ of the playful monkeys.

(a)   picture

(b)   a pictures

(c)   some pictures

(d)   a little pictures

10)   I heard ___________ coming from the stoteroom.

(a)   a little noises

(b)   a few noise

(c)   plenty noise

(d)   a noise