Countable and Uncountable Nouns in English

In English, nouns can be either countable or uncountable. Countable nouns (also known as count nouns) are those nouns that bare reference to something that can be counted. These types of nouns have both singular and plural forms. For example, dog / dogs, man / men. In the singular form, they might be preceded by an a or an a. The majority of all nouns will fall into this category.

That being said, there is a smaller group of nouns that do not refer to elements that can be counted, and therefore, they do not typically have a plural form. These are known as uncountable or mass nouns. Examples of these include, rain, earth, flour, wood, wine. Uncountable nouns are not capable of being preceded by a or an. There are many abstract nouns that are considered to be uncountable. For example, happiness, darkness, truth, humor.

There are uncountable nouns that can be used in the plural form as well, depending on the meaning or the context of the word. Here are some examples worth looking at.

Would you like some juice?

Uncountable because it is referring to the drink in general.

He ordered  juice.

Countable because it refers to a cup of juice.

There is no light in darkness.

Uncountable because it refers to the state of darkness.