hi I need help urgently.Will you please explain me when do we consider the nouns below as countable and when as uncountable?
chocolate,sheep,cake,chicken,law,crime,time
thanks in advance for your help
Hi Sehergungor
chocolate,sheep,cake,chicken,law,crime,time
Basically, when we are thinking of or talking about these things in general terms or facts, they are used as uncountable nouns. When we think of or talk about the number of items, they become countable.
I love chocolate. (talking about chocolate in general)
There are 6 chocolates left in that box. (number of items)
There is a lot of cake left (talking about the cake in general)
There are 2 chocolate cakes but only 1 orange cake. (being specific) I love the chocolate cakes.
Chicken tastes great. (general, talking about chicken meat)
I have 6 chickens in my freezer.(talking about specific chickens)
According to the law, in England you have to drive on the left. (talking about the law in general, fact)
There is a law which says children have to go to school. There’s another one which says you can’t drink until you are 18/21 years old. I agree with both of these laws.(talking about specific laws)
Crime is rife in some areas. (talking about crime in general, fact)
He has been convicted of many crimes, including robbery, arson, murder and fraud (talking about specific crimes)
Time is a little different. When refering to ‘a perod of time’, it is always uncountable.
I have no time to do this homework.
When using ‘time’ to refer to occurences then it becomes countable:
I’ve read this book 5 times.
I went to that river about 20 times when I was a child.
I’ve told you 10 times to do your homework!
Sheep is used both as a plural and a singular noun - we do not add ‘s’ when talking abou numbers of sheep.
New Zealand has a lot of sheep. (fact, uncountable plural noun)
Sheep meat is called mutton (fact, uncountable plural noun)
I have 10 sheep in my garden. (countable singular noun)
I hopethis helps - good luck!
Jan