Countability
Countability is an essential characteristic of English nouns (like gender for French, Spanish or Italian nouns) and must be learned. Making a mistake with a noun's countability can lead to a whole series of errors including verb agreement, articles and quantifiers. Adding to this difficulty is the fact that countability does not necessary mean that the noun can be "counted". Money can be counted but the word itself is uncountable.
Many nouns can be both countable and uncountable with a change in meaning, e.g.:
Email - uncountable - the technology
Emails - countable - the messages
Communication - uncountable - the process
Communications - countable - messages
Experience - the knowledge and skills acquired
Experiences - important or influential events and situations
Contact - the act of communicating
Contacts - people you know
Paper - the material
Papers - documents or newspapers
Many uncountable nouns can be made countable by adding a piece of.
E.g. A piece of toast, a piece of fruit, a piece of paper, a piece of information, a piece of advice.
Some uncountable nouns can appear with a definite article in a fixed phrase, e.g. a good knowledge of English.
Research and advice are two uncountable nouns which students often make mistakes with. This may be due to confusion with the pronunciation of verb forms (John researches at the university and advises the government on climate change) or other noun forms that can be countable and plural e.g. researchers, advisers.
Exercise
- How countable is tested - extra word exercise (BEC Vantage Reading Part 5) p.42
Going Further
Notes and examples:
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