Countable Nouns vs Uncountable Nouns

UnCountable Nouns
A countable noun is the name of anything that we can count in both the singular and plural forms. The opposite of countable noun is the uncountable noun and the collective nouns.
For example: The boys helped to keep the toys after playing
Uncountable Nouns

An uncountable noun also called the mass noun is a noun that does not have a plural form which you could not count. An uncountable noun always take a singular verb (is, was) in a sentence. Uncountable nouns are similar to collective nouns and are the opposite of countable noun.
For example: The air is fresh and the sand is pearly white. (since air and sand are uncountable, is (verb) is used even if we are refering to abundant of air and plenty of sand.
Note: Both countable and uncountable nouns are concrete nouns.
Nouns that can be made countable and uncountable
I borrowed this from a website for its clear explanation
Sometimes, the same noun can be countable and uncountable, often with a change of meaning.

Countable Nouns	Uncountable Nouns
There are two hairs in my coffee!	I don’t have much hair.
There are two lights in our bedroom.	Close the curtain. There’s too much light!
Shhhhh! I thought I heard a noise.	It’s difficult to work when there is too much noise.
Have you got a paper to read? (= newspaper)	I want to draw a picture. Have you got some paper?
Our house has seven rooms.	Is there room for me to sit here?
We had a great time at the party.	Have you got time for a coffee?
Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s greatest works.	I have no money. I need work!

Note: Drinks are uncountable but if we wish to order a cup of coffee or 2 glasses of orange juice we can say “one coffee and two orange juice please”.

Concrete Nouns vs Abstract Nouns

Concrete nouns and abstract nouns are directly opposite of each other; one is used to describe tangible objects while the other describes the intangible, meaning objects of the senses….

Concrete Nouns
A concrete noun is the name of anything or anyone that we can perceive with our 5 physical senses, touch, see, taste, hear and smell. Its opposite is abstract noun.
For example: The teacher read the story to the students.

Abstract Nouns
An abstract noun is the name of anything which we cannot perceive through our 5 physical senses just the opposite of a concrete noun.
For example: The young girl jumped with joy on receiving her gift while her friends looked on with envy.

Nouns as Adjectives

An adjective is a word to describe a noun. Sometimes we use a noun to describe another noun. In that case, the first noun “acts as” an adjective.
Adjective/noun: happy boy, clever girl, smart worker
“Noun as adjective”/noun: plastic bottle, glass cover, bird cage


Rules of nouns as adjectives

• The “noun as adjective” will always come first, the second noun is the subject matter. Once you understand this rule, you will understand the meaning of a sentence.
  1. A race dog is a dog that runs in races
  2. A dog race is a race for dogs
  3. A toy house is a toy in the shape of a house
  4. A house toy is a toy for playing in the house, can be any type of toys
  5. A lighthouse is a beacon
  6. A house light is any lighting unit in the house

• Just like a real adjective, the “noun as adjective” is invariable. It is usually in the singular form. If there is a plural it is on the real noun only.

Correct Usage

• Toothbrush/Toothbrushes
• Plastic bottle/Plastic bottles
• Bird cage/Bird cages

Incorrect Usage

• Teethbrush/Teethbrushes
• Plastics bottle/Plastics bottles
• Birds cage/Birds cages

• A few nouns look plural but we usually treat them as singular (e.g. news, billiards, athletics, sports, clothes, accounts). When we use these nouns “as adjectives” they are unchanged:
• news report/news reports, billiards table/billiards tables, athletics game/athletics games, sports article/sports articles, clothes line/clothes lines, accounts clerk/accounts clerks

• Writing “nouns as adjectives”

We write the “noun as adjective” with the real noun in 3 different ways:

1. In two separate words (apple pie)
2. In two hyphenated words (tax-plan)
3. In one word (football)

There is no fixed rule for this. We sometimes use all the three different ways to write on single “noun as adjective” e.g. head master, head-master, headmaster

The rules of style that apply to dashes and hyphens have evolved to support ease of reading in complex constructions; editors often accept deviations from them that will support, rather than hinder, ease of reading.

• Saying “nouns as adjectives”

We always emphasize on the first noun that is the “noun in adjective” when speaking.

• More than one “nouns as adjectives”

We can use more than one “noun as adjectives” to describe a noun, just like we do in adjectives e.g “China team badminton coach”

• Combined “ nouns as adjectives” with adjectives

We can also combine adjective with “noun as adjective” to better describe a noun e.g. “the cute Italian football player”

Proper Nouns vs Common Nouns

A proper noun is the name of a person, animal, place or organization, for example, James, Snoopy, England, Paris or Motorola. A name is a noun, but a very special noun—a proper noun. Proper nouns have their own rules…..we always used capital letter for the first letter of a proper noun; examples as shown below:

Proper Nouns vs	Common Nouns
James, Elton	man, boy, father, son
Susan, Jane	woman, girl, mother, daughter
Pizza Hut, Walmart	eatery, megastore
Agilent, Toshiba	factory, company
Monday, October	day, month
Malaysia, London	country, city
Blue Ocean, Superman Returns	book, movie

Proper Nouns without THE

1. We do not use “the” with names of people
2. We do not normally use “the” with names of companies except if the registered name of the company starts with “The” e.g. The China Post.
3. We do not normally use “the” for banks, hotels, shops etc. named after a person with - ’s or -s e.g. McDonalds
4. We do not normally use “the” with names of places e.g. Malaysia, Europe, Paris except if a country is with the word “Republic”, “States” and “Kingdom” e.g. The People’s Republic of China, The United Kingdom, The United States of America.
5. We do not use “the” with “Dr/Mr/Mrs/President/Professor with name e.g Dr Watson, President Bush, Mr & Mrs Smith.
6. We do not use “the” with Lake/Mount with name e.g. Lake Michigan, Mount Everest.
7. We do not normally use “the” for streets, roads, square, parks e.g Victoria Street, Clove Hall Road, Tianmen Square, Hyde Park.
8. Many big, important buildings have names made of two words (for example, Kennedy Airport). If the first word is the name of a person or place, we do not normally use “the” e.g. St. Peter’s Church, Heathrow Airport

Proper Nouns with THE

1. We normally use “the” for country names that include “States”, “Kingdom”, “Republic” etc (as above).
2. We normally use “the” for names of canals, rivers, seas and oceans eg, the Suez Canal, the Yangtse River, the Dead Sea, the Atlantic Ocean.
3. We normally use “the” for plural names of people and places e.g. the Tans, the Smiths, the Virgin Islands, the Philippines, the Himalayas, the Alps.
4. We normally use “the” with the following sorts of names e.g. the Shangri-La Hotel, the Peking Restaurant, the Citibank, the White House, the Star Newspapers, the CNN.
5. We normally use “the” for names made with “…of…” e.g. the Straits of Malacca, the Stature of Liberty, the Bank of China.

Sometimes you will make proper nouns out of common nouns, as in the following examples: condominium = Gemdale Condominiums, mall = Queensbay Mall.

Nouns - What is a Noun?

A noun is a word used to name a person, animal, place, thing, and abstract idea. It is a name of anything! The bold words in the following sentences are nouns:

The cat is out of the bag.
My father works in the bank.
The train checker checks the passengers’ tickets.

The problem with this simple definition is that it does not explain why “love” is a noun but can also be a verb.
A clearer way of looking at nouns is by its ending, its position and its function.

Noun words ending in

1. ity} sensitivity, creativity, nationality
2. ment} judgement, appointment, contentment
3. ness} greatness, gentleness, kindness
4. ation} plantation, temptation, orientation
5. hood} knighthood, boyhood, livelihood
6. ful} spoonful, plateful, cupful (this is not a fixed rules as some words ending in -ful can be adjectives for example careful, beautiful, pitiful, powerful

Noun position in a sentence
We can easily recognise nouns in the position of a sentence which often comes after a determiner word like a, an, the, this, my, such etc:

• a cat
• an appointment
• the condominium
• this plantation
• my handbag
• such creativity

Nouns also often comes after one or more adjectives:

• a black cat
• a business appointment
• the 5-star condominium
• this rubber plantation
• my pink beaded handbag
• such intelligent creativity

Noun function in a sentence
Nouns have specific function in a sentence, for example:

• subject of verb: Children play quietly.
• object of verb: She loves cats.
• subject and object of verb: Tellers dispense money.

Not all subjects or objects of a sentence is always a noun. It could be a pronoun or a phrase. His children play quietly - “children” is the noun but “His children” is the subject.