Countable and Uncountable Nouns
Why it's "a banana" but "some rice", and why you can never give "an advice".
Ask yourself: can I put a number in front of it? Two bananas? Yes. Two rices? No. That's the whole test. The tricky part is that a few words that are countable in Sinhala are uncountable in English. We'll get to those.
ගණන් කරන්න පුළුවන් දේවල් countable nouns [C]. ගණන් කරන්න බැරි දේවල් (දියර, කුඩු, අදහස් වගේ) uncountable nouns [U]. uncountable වචන ඉස්සරහට a හරි an හරි දාන්නේ නෑ. බහුවචන කරන්නෙත් නෑ. ඩික්ෂනරියේ වචනය ළඟ [C] හරි [U] හරි දාලා තියෙනවා බලන්න.
Countable nouns [C]
They have a singular and a plural, and you can use a/an and numbers.
Countable
- I want a banana.
- She has three dogs.
- How many friends do you have?
Uncountable nouns [U]
Liquids, powders, materials and ideas are usually uncountable:
- Food and drink: rice, bread, sugar, salt, water, milk, tea, coffee
- Materials: gold, sand, wood, paper (= the material), plastic
- Ideas and feelings: love, fear, happiness, knowledge, help, luck
- Others: money, time, weather, traffic, homework
Uncountable
- How much rice do you want?
- Add a little sugar.
- There's a lot of traffic on Galle Road today.
- Can I have some water?
Counting uncountable nouns
You can't count water, but you can count glasses of water. Put a container or a unit in front:
Making them countable
- a cup of tea
- two glasses of water
- a loaf of bread / a slice of bread
- a kilo of rice
- a piece of advice
The tricky ones
These are countable in Sinhala, but uncountable in English. They're the source of many mistakes:
advice, information, news, furniture, luggage (baggage), equipment, homework, work, research, progress, knowledge, evidence, accommodation, traffic
How much or how many?
| Countable | Uncountable | |
|---|---|---|
| Question | How many eggs? | How much milk? |
| A big amount | many eggs / a lot of eggs | much milk / a lot of milk |
| A small amount | a few eggs | a little milk |
| Some | some eggs | some milk |
Words that can be both
Some nouns change meaning:
Both, with different meanings
- She has long hair.all the hair: [U]
- There's a hair in my soup! 🤢one hair: [C]
- I don't have time.time in general: [U]
- I've been to Sri Lanka three times.occasions: [C]
- Give me some paper.the material: [U]
- I bought a paper today.a newspaper: [C]
Quick check
Tap an answer. Nothing is saved.
Can you give me about my CV?
" eggs do we need for the cake?"
" sugar do you take in your tea?"
How much can I take on the plane?
Add milk to the curry.
The information on the website wrong.
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