Countable and uncountable nouns ; Count noun and Mass noun

Countable and uncountable nouns
- Count noun and Mass noun

Count nouns are common nouns that can take a plural, can combine with numerals or quantifiers (e.g. one", "two", "several", "every", "most"), and can take an indefinite article ("a" or "an").

In linguistics, a count noun (also countable noun) is a noun which can be modified by a numeral and occur in both singular and plural form, as well as co-occurring with quantificational determiners like every, each, several, most, etc.

 A mass noun has none of these properties. It can't be modified by a numeral, occur in singular/plural or co-occur with the relevant kind of determiner.

 

 Below we see examples of all these properties for the count noun chair and the mass noun furniture. As always in discussion of syntax, a star "*" in front of a sentence indicates that the sentence is ill-formed.

 

Modification by numeral:
We saw seven chairs in the room.
*We saw seven furniture[s] in the room.

Occurrence in plural/singular.
There is a chair in the room.
There are chairs in the room.
*There is a furniture in the room.
*There are furnitures in the room.

Co-occurrence with count determiners
Every chair is man made.
There are several chairs in the room.
*Every furniture is man made.
*There are several furnitures in the room.

Some determiners can be used with both mass and count nouns,

 including "some", "a lot (of)", "no".

 

A common misunderstanding concerning the mass/count distinction is that it is based on the type of thing the different nouns refer to.