Lesson 37 - Counting Uncountable Nouns

Remember It

Questions

How much ....? = uncountable nouns
For example: How much coffee do you drink?
How many ....? = countable nouns
For example: How many cups of coffee do you drink?

Learn It

How do you count uncountable nouns? You can't, but you can measure them. You have to use ‘counters’
Noun
Uncountable	Sugar	Jewellery	Cheese	Wine	Furniture	Money
Uncountable Question	How much sugar is there?	How much jewellery is there?	How much cheese is there?	How much wine is there?	How much furniture is there?	How much money is there?
Answer	There's a lot of sugar.	There's some jewellery.	There's a lot of cheese.	There's some wine.	There's some furniture.	There's a lot of money.
Add a word	bowl	piece	round	bottle	piece	bag
Make it Countable	A bowl of sugar.	A piece of jewellery.	A round of cheese.	A bottle of wine.	A piece of furniture.	A bag of money.
Countable Question	How many bowls of sugar are there?	How many pieces of jewellery are there?	How many rounds of cheese are there?	How many bottles of wine are there?	How many pieces of furniture are there?	How many bags of money are there?
Answer	There's one bowl of sugar.	There are two pieces of jewellery.	There are three rounds of cheese.	There's only one bottle of wine.	There are two pieces of furniture.	There are four bags of money.

Other words you can add to make uncountable nouns countable:-

You can put something into a container to count it, but the thing you're counting doesn't take the plural form. The container takes the plural form:-	For example:-
bag	A bag of money.
barrel	Two barrels of beer.
bottle	Three bottles of wine.
bowl	Four bowls of sugar.
box	Five boxes of cereal.
bucket	Six buckets of water.
can	Seven cans of Coke.
carton	Eight cartons of milk.
cup	Nine cups of coffee.
glass	Ten glasses of water.
jar	Eleven jars of honey.
packet	A dozen packets of butter.
a saucepan	Thirteen pans of rice.
tank	Fifteen tanks of petrol.
tin	Sixteen tins of custard.
tub	Seventeen tubs of margarine.
tube	Eighteen tubes of toothpaste.

You can measure something to count it, but it still doesn't take the plural form. The measurement takes the plural form:-	For example:-
litre	1 and a half litres of milk.
pint	Two pints of beer.
pound / ounce / kilo etc...	Two pounds / ounces / kilos of butter.

You can measure uncountable nouns in other ways, using shapes or portions. Again the measurement takes the plural form.
ball	Ten balls of wool.
bar	Three bars of soap.
pinch	Two pinches of salt.
slice	Five slices of cake.
spoon	Fourteen spoonfuls of sugar.
square	Ten squares of chocolate.