A noun is usually described as a person, place, or thing, which seems simple enough until you really unpack all the different types of nouns: concrete and abstract, common and proper, count and noncount, and all the considerations that come with them. In this blog post, I am focusing on count and noncount nouns and will talk about what those labels mean, how they work in a sentence, what they tell us about grammar, as well as how you might integrate this into tutoring or teaching techniques. In particular, you will find specific language based feedback for English as Additional Language (EAL) writers based around this understanding.
Definitions
The difference between count and noncount nouns are in the name: some can be counted and some cannot.
Count nouns name things that you can count and they can take singular or plural forms. For example, cat, class, pepper, reason. All of these words can take plural forms by adding an s, and can be counted: I have three cats; I am taking 4 classes this quarter; I bought two peppers; I will give you three reasons.
Singular count nouns will always come with an article or a determiner before them: I have a cat, I have one cat, That is my cat, etc.
Bonus question: What is a determiner?
Answer: It is an umbrella grammar category that includes articles a, an, the; demonstrative adjectives this, that, those, these; numbers; possessive adjectives my, you, his, their, her; and quantifiers like many, each, several.
On the other hand, noncount nouns, sometimes called mass nouns, cannot be counted or quantified. For example, honesty, rain, spaghetti, luggage. Notice that noncount nouns are nouns that do not take the plural form.
Indefinite articles are not used with noncount nouns. So, you might say I value honesty, but you would not say, I value an honesty.
Native like speakers of English sometimes do quantify nouns that are technically noncount. For example, one might say, I would like 2 coffees, please. What is actually being quantified in that statement though? The coffee itself is not being quantified (it would be hard to say what makes one coffee), but rather the cups of coffee because you can count cups. It would be the same as saying, I would like two cups of coffee, please. This goes to my next point that we often do need to find a way to quantify a non-count noun and that requires some helping count nouns like cups, pieces, glasses, etc.
For example, you would not say, I have four furnitures in my living room, but you might say, I have four pieces of furniture in my living room where pieces is the noun being quantified.
Question: What is the difference in meaning between saying I like chickens and I like chicken?
Answer: I like chickens is referring to the count noun or the live animal. I like chicken refers to the noncount noun or the food that is set on the table to eat.
So, there are important differences between count and noncount nouns with specific rules for use that can have an impact on meaning in a sentence.
Other Rules to Consider
How many or how much?
We use how many in questions for count nouns: How many cats do you have? Or How many pieces of jewelry did you buy?
We use how much in questions about noncount nouns: How much furniture is there? How much jewelry should I wear?
A lot
You can use a lot with count and noncount nouns: I have a lot of furniture. I have a lot of cats.
A few or a little?
A few is used with plural count nouns and a little is used with noncount nouns: I have a few chairs. I have a little cheese leftover.
General versus Specific
Another way to think about count and noncount nouns and the use of articles with them has to do with whether you are referencing something specific, for example, the cats or the furniture, or something general, cats, a cat, furniture. When speaking specifically about count or noncount nouns, you use a definite article. When speaking generally about something, you would not use an article for a plural count noun, an indefinite article for a singular count noun, and no article for a noncount noun.
A more complete breakdown of the rules can be found here.
Student Writing and Sample Written Feedback Comment
Below are three sentences from the same paragraph of an English language learning writer’s opinion essay on different ways to choose a major in college and the pros and cons of those different choices:
- “Another way is choosing a major which can get more benefits in the future. There are more and more people choose their job just for money.”
- “Choosing major for future’s benefit at first can be a good choice for them.”
- “Some people say students can change major easy by themselves in university, but actually students do not have too many chances to change.”
Sample Comment on the First Sentence, Specifically on “A Major”
Agenda Item: Nouns
I noticed that you say “a major” here, and you include the word “a” which is the indefinite article in grammar terms, but that in other places you leave “a” out and just say “major”. Including “a” is correct here because “major” is a noun that can be made plural (for example, I have two majors).
Another way to think about this has to do with the article. You are speaking in general terms here – choosing a major, or choosing any major, right? So, you will want that indefinite article “a” to show that this is about choosing a major generally. If you were to say, “the major” it would mean a specific major, like biology.
Comment Unpacked
Here are some things that I tried to achieve with this comment:
- Comment on something the writer did that is grammatically correct and work from the angle of why it is correct and how you should use it elsewhere.
- Use a mix of metalinguistic vocabulary AND jargon free explanation.
Why? Because some writers have backgrounds in learning another language in school and so they might respond well to metalinguistic vocab like “count nouns” (this is sometimes referred to as eye learners); however, some writers do not have this language experience. They may have mainly learned in the context of speaking and communicating with others in real life situations (sometimes referred to as ear learners). We don’t always know for sure a writer’s language learning experience, but we can try to accommodate both experiences in our feedback.
Other Examples – Subject Verb Agreement
Beyond articles, count and noncount nouns come in handy for concerns related to subject verb agreement. You may have seen similar things to these examples in appointments:
“The committee participate in various volunteer activities in their private lives.”
“The furniture take up a lot of space in the room.”
Noncount nouns like committee and furniture are tricky because they refer to more than one thing, but they are technically singular, because noncount nouns cannot be plural.
Commenting on subject-verb agreement is an opportunity to use knowledge of count and noncount nouns to provide detailed explanations and share resources. Here is another example of a marginal comment:
Agenda item: Subject Verb Agreement
Here your subject, or the thing or noun in the sentence, is “furniture.” Furniture refers to different pieces like 3 chairs and a couch, for example. While furniture refers to multiple parts, furniture itself is one thing, it is singular. This is sometimes referred to as a noncount noun, which means it cannot be made plural – we wouldn’t say “furnitures.”
Now, the verb you use here is “take” which is the plural form of the verb, meaning it would go with a plural noun. This makes sense because we know that furniture refers to different pieces, like multiple chairs. However, in this case, because we know that “furniture” operates as a singular noun, that the verb that goes with it will agree by also being singular. So, it would be “The furniture takes up a lot of space in the room.”
You could also say, “The pieces of furniture take up a lot of space in the room.” This is because “pieces” is a plural noun referring to parts of the whole – the furniture.
Talking about Count and Noncount Nouns in Feedback
Addressing grammar in the agenda is difficult because it requires an understanding of how grammar works, an ability to explain that in varied terms, and some lengthy comments in your letter or in your comments to do all of that. Here are some additional considerations:
- Take a scaffolded approach: start with a very thorough and clear explanation of the grammar item you are addressing in your agenda as a foundation. Then, you might point to that as a reference in other comments that become increasingly brief.
- Offer direct options (more than one) for revision to supplement your explanation of the grammar: Rather than saying, this needs to change to this, offer multiple suggestions as examples of the grammar in action. This is important because indirect feedback and nuanced suggestions can be hard to decode in an additional language.
- Hierarchical considerations: While articles and subject verb agreement do not always impede meaning, if you can explain a grammatical concept and offer suggestions, these comments can be useful to those learning English as an additional language, especially if they ask for feedback on grammar. That being said, if there are higher order concerns with grammar that impede meaning, you know what to do – address those first.
Works Cited
“Count and Noncount Nouns and Articles.” University of Lynchburg,
“Count Versus Noncount Nouns.” George Mason University Writing Center, https://d101vc9winf8ln.cloudfront.net/documents/22778/original/Count_vs_Noncount_Nouns_ATI.pdf?1565038575. Accessed 25 May 2021.
Folse, Keith. “KEYS to Teaching Grammar to English Language Learners.” University of Michigan Press, 2016.
“Grammar: Count and Noncount Nouns.” Walden University,
https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/grammar/nouns. Accessed 25 may 2021.