Countable and Uncountable Nouns

How many countable nouns can you think of?

Answer explanation

Countable nouns are nouns you can count - that's most things!

Children, teeth, teachers, schools, shirts, shoes, places, nouns, games, cookies, cooks, dogs, cats, and so on are all countable nouns.

How many uncountable nouns can you think of?

Answer explanation

Uncountable nouns are more difficult - they are nouns that cannot be counted.

Furniture, homework, air, water and mud are all examples of uncountable nouns.

Is water a countable or uncountable noun?

• countable

• uncountable

Is 'pet' a countable or uncountable noun?

• countable

• uncountable

Is rice a countable or uncountable noun?

• countable

• uncountable

Is sea a countable or uncountable noun?

• countable

• uncountable

Answer explanation

Believe it or not, while water is uncountable 'sea' is countable!

Just like how you can travel to two different countries, you can also travel on two different seas. It is a countable noun!

Complete the beginning of the question.

___ ____ butterflies is she chasing?

• How much

• How many

Answer explanation

You would write: 'How many butterflies is she chasing?'

Why? Because 'butterflies' is a countable noun.

A countable noun can be counted. You can say that there is one butterfly, or that there are two butterflies, or even a million butterflies.

Complete the beginning of this question:

___ ____ bread do you have?

• How much...

• How many...

Answer explanation

You would write: 'How much bread do you have?'

Why? Because 'bread' is an uncountable noun.

An uncountable noun cannot be counted. You can count the number of slices of bread there are in a loaf of bread. You can count the loaves of bread. But you can't count 'bread'.

How ____ teeth does she have?

Answer explanation

You can count your teeth - they are countable nouns. Like most countable nouns there is a plural form even if it is irregular (teeth) and a singular form (tooth).

Since they are countable nouns, we use 'many' and not 'much'.

How ____ sheep are there?

Answer explanation

Even though you can say 'one sheep' and also say 'two sheep', 'sheep' is still a countable noun.

Therefore, you have to write:

"How many sheep are there?"