Uncountable nouns – Words List

Uncountable nouns are the names of things that we cannot count.

Eg: oil

They don’t have plural forms.

Eg: Hope

It is not quantified by numbers and never has articles ‘a’ or ‘an’ before them.

Eg: We can say ‘bottles’ but we cannot say ‘milks’

Types of Uncountable Nouns

There are different types of uncountable nouns. The list of the same is given below:

Liquids & metals: These are uncountables and therefore not used in the plural

Eg:

Liquids:  oil, milk and water

Metals: Gold, platinum, copper

Grains and Powder: We cannot make a plural of these items by adding ‘s’ at the end.

Eg: Sugar

Natural phenomena & Feelings: We can neither count them using numbers nor can add ‘s’ at the end to make them plural.

Eg:

Natural phenomena: snow, sunshine, weather.

Feelings: enthusiasm, anger, happiness, courage

Gas, abstract ideas & metals: When some words are used in the plural, they become countable with changed meanings.

Eg: air = atmosphere whereas airs= affected manners.

Advice = counsel whereas advices = information

Copper = metal whereas coppers = copper coins.

Abstract nouns: They have no plural and hence are uncountable.

Eg: Hope, charity, love, kindness.

Pronouns or Questioning Adverbs used for uncountable nouns

In the case of uncountable nouns the pronouns and questioning adverbs should be used in this way:

Eg: Using much and many to enquire about quantity.

‘Much’ is used with uncountable nouns and ‘many’ is used with countable nouns.

Countable nouns

How many? /these/not many/many

Uncountable nouns

How much?/this/not much/a lot of

The concept of countable and uncountable nouns will help you to improve your grammar. It will also aid in pronunciation which is of great help in the IELTS writing and speaking test.

Also check: Advanced Grammar for IELTS: Nouns and Noun Phrases