Uncountable nouns

Uncountable nouns are substances, concepts etc that we cannot divide into separate elements. We cannot "count" them.

For example, we cannot count "milk". We can count "bottles of milk" or "litres of milk", but we cannot count "milk" itself.

Here are some more uncountable nouns:

• music, art, love, happiness, advice, information, news, furniture, luggage, rice, sugar, butter, water, electricity, gas, power, money, currency.

We usually treat uncountable nouns as singular. We use a singular verb.

For example:

• This news is very important.

• Your luggage looks heavy.

We do not usually use the indefinite article a/an with uncountable nouns. We cannot say "an information" or "a music".

But we can say a something of:

• a piece of news

• a bottle of water

• a grain of rice

We can use some and any with uncountable nouns:

• I've got some money.

• Have you got any rice?

We can use a little and much with uncountable nouns:

• I've got a little money.

• I haven't got much rice.

Uncountable nouns are also called "mass nouns".

Your dictionary will show if a noun is uncountable (-s)