Mass and Count Nouns
Grammar Rules Guide - Chapter 18
Every noun can also be distinguished as count or mass.
Count nouns are nouns that can be quantified or counted with a number.
Some types of count nouns are:
Names of persons, animals, plants, insects, and their parts: a boy, a kitten, a rose, an ear, three boys, seven kittens, twelve roses, two ears.
Objects with a definite shape: a building, a balloon, a house, an octopus, four buildings, six balloons, four houses, two octopi.
Units of measurement and words of classification: a gram, a pound, a piece, a lump, an item, a bit, a family, a state, a language, a phrase a word.
Some abstract words: a hindrance, a scheme, an idea, a plan, a taboo, a rest.
Tests for Count Nouns:
Count nouns can be quantified by a number.
They have singular and plural forms.
They can use a, an, or one as a modifier.
They can use many as a modifier.
Mass Nouns are uncountable by a number. Mass nouns are quantified by a word that signifies amount.
Some types of mass nouns are:
Materials, food, metals, and natural qualities: bread, cotton, wood, lightness, adolescence.
Names of liquids, gases, and substances made of many small particles: cappuccino, oil, smoke, oxygen, rice, sugar, salt, cement, gravel.
Names of languages: English, Spanish, French, Latin, Sanskrit, Chinese.
Many abstract nouns, including those ending in -ness, -ance, -ence, -ity: beauty, ignorance, peace, serenity, helpfulness, patriotism.
Most gerunds: looking, listening, swimming, running, anticipating.
A number can not be used to quantify a mass noun. Incorrect: four woods, one rice, three courages).
To measure or classify mass nouns use of after a measurement: a foot of wood, a pound of rice, an ounce of courage, a bar of chocolate, a piece of music, a bag of money.
Tests for Mass Nouns:
Mass nouns are quantified by an amount rather than a number.
They have only one form (singular).
They cannot have a, an, or one before them as modifiers.
They can use much as a modifier.
Grammar Rules Guide Index
Active and Passive Voice - Chapter 1
Adjective, Adverb, and Noun Clauses - Chapter 2
Adjectives - Chapter 3
Adverbs - Chapter 4
Appositives - Chapter 5
Auxiliary Verbs - Chapter 6
Common and Proper Nouns - Chapter 7
Comparatives and Superlatives - Chapter 8
Complements - Chapter 9
Conjunctions - Chapter 10
Conjunctive Adverbs - Chapter 11
Dangling Modifiers - Chapter 12
Direct and Indirect Objects - Chapter 13
Fused Sentences, Run-Ons, and Comma Splices - Chapter 14
Homophones - Chapter 15
Independent and Dependent Clauses - Chapter 16
Interjections - Chapter 17
Mass and Count Nouns - Chapter 18
Misplaced Modifiers - Chapter 19
Noun and Pronoun Case - Chapter 20
Noun and Verb Phrases - Chapter 21
Nouns - Chapter 22
Parallelism - Chapter 23
Perfect and Progressive Verb Forms - Chapter 24
Prepositional Phrases - Chapter 25
Prepositions - Chapter 26
Principal Parts of Verbs - Chapter 27
Pronoun and Antecedent Agreement - Chapter 28
Pronouns - Chapter 29
Regular and Irregular Verbs - Chapter 30
Relative Clauses - Chapter 31
Restrictive and Non-Restrictive Clauses - Chapter 32
Sentence Fragments - Chapter 33
Sentence Types - Chapter 34
Subjects and Predicates - Chapter 35
Verb Mood - Chapter 36
Verbals and Verbal Phrases - Chapter 37
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