Uncountable nouns

UNIT 65   Uncountable nouns (gold, music, advice, etc.)

A.   Uncountable nouns are, for example:   gold   music   blood   excitement

Uncountable nouns are things we cannot count. They have no plural. You cannot say
"musics," bloods'' or "excitements


B.   Before uncountable nouns you can say the/some/any/much/this/his, etc:

the music           some gold           much excitement           his blood

But you cannot use a/an before an uncountable noun. So you cannot say "a music," "an excitement
or "a blood."

You can also use uncountable nouns alone, with no article.

• This ring is made of gold

• Blood is red

C.   Many nouns can be used as countable or as uncountable nouns, Usually there is a difference in meaning For example:
paper    I bought a paper. (= a newspaper-countable)
               I bought some paper. material for writing on-uncountable)

hair       There's a hair in my soup! (= one single hair countable)
               She has beautiful hair. (= hair on her head uncountable)

experience   We had many interesting experiences on our vacation. (= things that happened to us countable)
                         You need experience for this job. (= knowledge of something because you have done it before uncountable)                       


D.   Some nouns are usually uncountable in English but often countable in other languages. Here are the most important of these:

advice             bread           information         permission       traffic           weather
baggage          chaos                work                     travel            luggage         progress
behavior      furniture            news                    trouble          scenery

These nouns are uncountable, so (i) you cannot use a/an before them; and (ii) they cannot be plural:

Tom gave me some good advice. (not some good advices)

Where are you going to put all your furniture? (not furnitures)

We don't have much luggage to carry. (not many luggages)

I'm afraid I have some bad news (not a bad news)

Remember that news is not plural:

The news is very depressing today. (not The news are)

Do not use travel to mean trip/journey:
We had a good trip. (not a good travel)

Note these pairs of countable (C) and uncountable (UNC) nouns:

• I'm looking for work. (UNC)                    but         I'm looking for a job. (C)

• but What beautiful scenery! (UNC)        but        What a beautiful view! (C)