Grammar: A2 - ✨ Grammar Essentials: 🧩 Parts of Speech - Expanding - Lesson 2: Uncountable Nouns (Common examples: water, rice, information, music)

✨ Lesson 2: Uncountable Nouns

In our last lesson, we learned about countable nouns (e.g., one book, two books). Today, we will learn about their opposite: uncountable nouns¹, which are also called mass nouns².

Uncountable nouns are for things that we cannot count with numbers. They are seen as a whole or a mass. For example, you cannot say "one water" or "two rices".

Rules for Uncountable Nouns

1. They have no plural form. We never add '-s' to them. (e.g., information, NOT informations).
2. They always use a singular verb (like 'is' or 'has'). For example: "The rice is delicious."

Common Categories of Uncountable Nouns

• Liquids³: water, coffee, soup, milk, oil
• Powders & Grains: rice, sugar, salt, pepper, flour
• Abstract Ideas⁴: information, music, advice, happiness, knowledge, fun
• General Categories: food, money, furniture, weather

How Can We Count Them?

If we can't use numbers directly, how do we count these nouns? We use "counters" or "partitives⁵". These are words that measure or hold the uncountable noun.

Uncountable Noun	How We Count It
water	a bottle of water, a glass of water
coffee	a cup of coffee
rice	a bowl of rice, a bag of rice
advice	a piece of advice
bread	a loaf of bread, a slice of bread

Useful Tip: The words some and a lot of can be used with BOTH countable and uncountable nouns! (e.g., some books, some water; a lot of tourists, a lot of rice).

🧠 Practice Quiz: Countable or Uncountable?

For each noun, decide if it is Countable (C) or Uncountable (U).

1. car → C
2. music → U
3. student → C
4. information → U
5. happiness → U
6. chair → C

📝 Homework: Choose the Correct Word

Choose the correct word to complete the sentence.

Example: The advice (was / were) very helpful. → was

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1. The information you gave me (is / are) interesting.

2. Please buy a (bread / loaf of bread) from the shop.

3. She gave me (some / two) good advice.

(Answers: 1. is, 2. loaf of bread, 3. some)

Vocabulary Glossary

1. Uncountable Noun: (Noun) - នាមរាប់មិនបាន (niam roăp' mĭn ban) - A noun for something that cannot be counted with numbers. ↩
2. Mass Noun: (Noun) - នាមម៉ាស (niam maas) - Another name for an uncountable noun. ↩
3. Liquid: (Noun) - វត្ថុរាវ (voăt'thu'reav) - A substance that flows freely like water or oil. ↩
4. Abstract Idea: (Phrase) - គំនិតអរូបី (kumnit a'roobii) - A concept or feeling that you cannot touch, like love, happiness, or information. ↩
5. Partitive / Counter: (Noun) - ពាក្យរាប់ (peak roăp') - A word or phrase that measures or counts an uncountable noun (e.g., a 'piece of', a 'cup of'). ↩