Grammar: Word classes: Nouns

Countable and uncountable nouns

Focus on uncountable nouns: Student problems

Students sometimes mistakenly use uncountable nouns as if they were countable. Here the uncountable nouns appear in the singular with an indefinite article (a/an):

I have a short hair and my hobby is playing football.
Finally, I want to give an advice to those people.
After waiting for a long time, we bought a food.
After lunch I watch television for an hour, then I do a homework.
Today, I got an interesting information from your newspaper.
Tomorrow Sammy will take a money to Disneyland.

Students sometimes mistakenly try and put uncountable nouns in the plural:

He has long hairs and wears sunglasses.
I can give you some advices about improving your English.
My mother is going to prepare the foods.
They can also revise their homeworks together.
Last time, you asked me for some informations about Hong Kong.
That night, I stayed in a room with simple furnitures.
The man has to pay a lot of monies for the ticket.
The man has to pay a lot of money for the ticket.

Although news looks like a plural noun, it is actually an uncountable noun, so that the following sentences are impossible:

While I was playing, I heard a news. Mandy was unhappy.
While I was playing, I heard the news that Mandy was unhappy.
The newspaper has many news about young people.
The newspaper has lots of news about young people.
The newspaper has many stories about young people.