Is everything in the world amenable to accounting and measurement? Not. True, here we are not talking about such philosophical concepts as love or friendship. We are interested in uncountable nouns in English. We will analyze all the nuances of their use.
The concept of uncountable noun
The words “love” and “friendship” will be most relevant to this topic. Neither one can be counted. We can say "a lot of love", but we cannot "three loves". That is how we distinguish between countable and uncountable nouns, the number of the first can always be calculated. It may be one bottle of water, two bottles of water (one bottle of water, two bottles of water), but “one water” (one water), “two waters” (two waters) or “three waters” (three waters) - so do not speak. The word "water" is uncountable.
Why even get acquainted with the category of uncountable nouns? Is it really impossible to use these words correctly without knowing whether they can be counted? In fact, this is important in English, because the indefinite article "a" is not used before uncountable nouns (for nouns with a vowel - an), and the definite article the is used only in some cases.
Types of uncountable nouns
Keep in mind that any Russian uncountable noun can have an English counterpart that can be counted. Although mismatches are rare enough. In any case, one should have an idea of exactly which words can be attributed to uncountable, if only in order to correctly use the articles with them. The list of uncountable nouns in English includes:
- abstract nouns: beauty - beauty, permission - permission;
- names of diseases: flu - flu;
- weather conditions: rain - rain;
- food: cheese - cheese;
- substances: water - water;
- sports or activities: gardening - gardening;
- items: equipment - equipment;
- geographical features: the Mississippi - Mississippi;
- languages: German - German, Russian - Russian.
And also a number of generalizing nouns like information - information, money - money. In most cases, it is easy to guess whether a noun is uncountable. But some words can cause difficulties. For example, hair is hair. Some students are baffled by meeting a hair in their assignments. Actually, hair and a hair are different words. The first is really uncountable and translates as hair, the second word has the meaning "hair" and can be used in the plural. The word advice may also be surprising. It does not have a plural, advices do not exist. It can be translated both as “advice” and as “advice” depending on the situation. The word fruit does not mean "one fruit," but "fruit." It is very rare to find fruits, but it has a rather specific meaning with the approximate meaning of "fruits of different types."
Features of the use of uncountable nouns: pronouns, article
With uncountable nouns, only a certain article is used. For example, the news is this news. The indefinite article "a" is never put before them. Also, these nouns are not plural. Many of them are already in the plural: news. But they can be used with quantitative pronouns: some (some), little (few), much (many), as well as with indicative: this (this), that (that). In addition to all this, there are a number of words that make uncountable nouns in the English language countable: a piece, a bowl, a bag, a can, a glass, a tile, a cup, a loaf, a slice, and others.
For example, a bar of soap / chocolate / gold - a bar of soap / bar of chocolate / gold bar, a bowl of fruits - a bowl of fruit, a carton of milk - a package of milk, a can of beer - a can of beer, a cup of coffee - cup of coffee, a loaf of bread - loaf or loaf of bread.
Countless nouns with the expression a piece of
It is very interesting to use the word "piece" - a piece of. It is often used with the most unexpected for Russian people abstract and uncountable words, for example, a piece of advice, a piece of music, a piece of information. And, of course, we will not translate these expressions as a “piece of advice”, “a piece of music” or “a piece of information”, although the latter option is quite acceptable. But since these are rather stable expressions, then the translation will be concrete: “advice”, “musical composition”, “message”.
Matching uncountable nouns with verbs
Which verb should be used with an uncountable noun: in the form of a singular or plural? For example, how do you say "money on the table"? The money is on the chest or The money are on the chest? The first option will be correct. With uncountable nouns, only verbs in the singular are used. Examples: the milk is fresh - the milk is fresh, the water is very hot - the water is very hot. But if auxiliary words are used that allow one to measure uncountable nouns, then the verbs are coordinated already with them. For example, two cartoons of milk are on the table - two packs of milk on the table, three bottles of water are in the fridge - three bottles of water in the refrigerator.
Uncountable nouns in English: types
Can all non-accountable nouns be divided into groups? There are two such groups in the English language, and, oddly enough, they are divided by number, singular or plural. Nouns ending in –s, -es are plural. For example, the names of games (darts), scientific theories (economics), groups and associations (Police, the Andes). Before them are used the demonstrative plurals of those or these. Before the uncountable singular nouns, and most of them, in this case this or that is used.
Countable and uncountable nouns: examples
To better understand the features of these types of nouns, consider pairs of nouns, one of which is countable and the other uncountable. Of particular interest are those that have the same translation. So: song - music (song - music), bottle - wine (bottle - wine), report - information (message - information), cupboard - furniture (cabinet - furniture), tip - advice (advice, tooltip - advice), job - work (work, piecework - work), jorney - travel (travel, trip - travel), view - scenery (overview, view - view, landscape). The word "clock", which in the Russian language is used only in the plural, in English will stand only in the singular. The watch is very expensive - This watch is very expensive. Although, if we are talking about a lot of watches, then it is quite possible to say watches. The word money can also be difficult. After all, Russian "money" is a plural. In English, the word money is always, without exception, only a singular. For example, Money in not for me - Money is not for me. Money is under the pillow - Money under the pillow.
Other interesting uncountable nouns in English: mail (mail, that is, parcels and letters), garlic (garlic), harm (harm, evil, loss, damage), homework (homework), chalk (chalk), content (content, textual and graphic content of the site), currency (currency), fame (fame, fame, popularity), garbage (garbage, garbage, leftovers), innicence (cleanliness, innocence), jelly (jam), labor (work, especially physical work) , livestock (livestock, farm animals).
Uncountable nouns in the English language and possessive case
Possessive expresses property relations. For example, in the phrase “dog tail” it is not clear who belongs to whom. But if you give the word “dog” the form of the possessive case, then it is immediately clear that the tail belongs to the dog, and not vice versa. The rules for stating English countable nouns in the possessive case are quite simple: you just need to add the ending "s" through an apostrophe, for example dog's tail. But how do you say "water temperature", "mass of substance" or "a few pounds of ice cream"? It is immediately worth noting that inanimate nouns are extremely rarely used in the possessive case. As a rule, the preposition "of" is used, for example: mass of a substance - the mass of a substance (as we see, in English, the word "substance" is not uncountable), few pounds of ice-cream - a few pounds of ice cream. The noun + noun construction is often used. For example, water temperature is the temperature of water.