Another classification of
nouns is countable and uncountable nouns.
Countable nouns are the nouns that we can count.
For
example: book, pen, apple, boy
We can count each of the
above nouns. There can be five books, three pens, one apple, etc.
Uncountable nouns are nouns that we cannot count.
For
example: milk, oil, sugar, honesty, gold.
While we may be able to
measure uncountable nouns in certain ways (gallons of milk, milliliters of oil,
spoons of sugar, etc.), we can’t count them directly. We can’t say five milks,
three oils, one sugar, etc.
NOTE: Countable nouns can be singular or plural while
uncountable nouns are always singular.
For example, consider the
following sentence.
The milk
that is left in the carton should be put back in the refrigerator.
In the above sentence, “milk”
is an uncountable noun, and “carton” and “refrigerator” are countable nouns.
Students often make mistakes
on subject-verb agreement when working with uncountable nouns. For example,
consider the following sentence:
The
information collected by undercover agents are invaluable and cannot be
compromised under any circumstances.
Can you spot the error in
this sentence? The subject of the above sentence is “information”. The verb of
the sentence is “are”. However, since “information” is an uncountable noun, it
is always singular and requires a singular verb. Therefore, the plural verb
“are” is incorrect. The correct form of the sentence should be:
The
information collected by undercover agents is invaluable and cannot be
compromised under any circumstances.