Grammar: Word classes: Nouns

Countable and uncountable nouns

Focus on countable nouns

Nouns that refer to individual things which can be counted are called 'countable nouns'. They have a singular form and a plural form. The plural form usually ends in -s, but not always:

	singular plural cat book apple cats books apples child sheep children sheep

For more information on the different forms for plural nouns, see the menu on the left: Noun formation: Singular and plural forms.

How do countable nouns differ from uncountable nouns?

In the singular, countable nouns are usually preceded by the articles a, an, the, or by a personal (possessive) pronoun (my, your, his, her, its, our, their). Countable nouns can also be used in the plural, and sometimes occur with a number, eg two, fifty or with a quantifier such as many:

Plural countable nouns can be used alone, without an article:

Miss Lee loves [ ] dogs very much.
Bozo collects [ ] stamps, and Dotty collects [ ] dolls.

However, singular countable nouns cannot usually occur alone without an article. This means that a word such as a, my, this is normally used before a singular countable noun.

For more information on determiners, see Grammar: Word classes: Determiners: Referring to specific people, things, etc: Overview