Countable & Uncountable Nouns

In necessary understand the differences between countable and uncountable to can express right the quantity. We can divide the nouns in two groups: countable and uncountable nouns.

-Countables: are the ones nouns of things, people, etc. that we can count. For example, we can say: one book, two books, three books...So we can say "book" is cuntable.

• chair, book, cat, pen, box, letter, book...

-Uncountable: is all we can't count. For example, we can't say: one rice, two rices, three rices...So we can say "rice" is uncountable.

• wood, tea, wine, sugar, oxygen, advice, bread, furniture, hair, information, money, news, spaghetti, weather, rice

Besides, a lot of nouns can be countables and uncountables at once depend on the sentence where is the noun. For example:

• there are two lambs.(Hay dos corderos)
• we like lamb.(Nos gusta la carne de cordero)

We can count numbers of uncountable things using for example: glass, bottle, litre, etc..Examples:

• a glass of waterthree
• cartons of milka
• loaf of bread

The countable nouns have plurals, but the uncountable nouns haven't plurals.

• book-books
• rice can't be "rices"

Before the countable nouns we can use a or an, but with uncountable nouns we can't say "a milk". If we want to put it with uncountable nouns, we put other word with "milk".

• a book
• an apple
• a carton of milk

We can use numbers before before of a countable. But we can't use numbers with the uncountable nouns.

• two eggs
• we can't say "two rices"

For countable plurals nouns we use many, and with uncountable singulars nouns we use much.

• How many students were there?
• There are too many people.
• How much milk is in the fridge?
• There is too much information.

We use few or a few to express a small quantity with countable nouns, but with uncountables we use little or a little.

• Few biscuits or a few biscuits(pocas galletas/unas cuantas galletas)
• Little milk or a little milk(poca leche/un poco de leche)

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