Corrections: ‘so many things’ and ‘so much stuff’
A simple but often forgotten grammar rule:
In English, unlike in Chinese, some nouns can be counted (e.g. birds), while others cannot be counted (e.g. air).
Countable nouns have a singular form and a plural form:
- 1 idea, 2 ideas, 3 ideas…
- 1 thing, 2 things, 3 things…
In contrast, uncountable nouns normally do not have a plural form (though, there are exceptions; see below):
- air
- water
- love
- stuff
Uncountable nouns
For uncountable nouns, you can use “… much”, not “… many”
- (negative) I didn’t eat (so) much food this morning.
- (question) How much food did you eat last night?
- (positive) I ate so much food last night.
- (positive) I ate a lot of food last night.
Note that much is used for negatives or for questions.
For positive sentences, in spoken English, we normally use a lot of or so much… E.g. So much food / A lot of food.
Other quantifiers for uncountable nouns are:
plenty of, some, any, a little, loads of (informal), stacks of (informal), heaps of (informal)
How do you count uncountable noun items?
For every uncountable noun, there is normally a counter. For example:
I ate a bowl of cereal for breakfast
Quiz: Can you match the following uncountable nouns on the left with the correct counter on the right? (Answers: see below)
1 | celery / incense / butter | A | a bar of | |
2 | chocolate / soap | B | a bottle of | |
3 | coffee / hot chocolate / tea | C | a bowl of | |
4 | deodorant / soda / fly spray | D | a can of | |
5 | lettuce / cabbage | E | a cup of | |
6 | pizza / pineapple / of the action | F | a head of | |
7 | rice / porridge / soup | G | a member of | |
8 | sugar / salt / syrup | H | a roll of | |
9 | staff / the team / a group | I | a piece of | |
10 | toilet paper / footage | J | a stick of | |
11 | water / wine / orange juice | K | a teaspoon of | |
12 | software / information / technology | L | a slice of |
Exceptions – uncountable nouns that don’t always need a counter
Some nouns can be used as either uncountable or countable plural. That is, they don’t always need a counter word.
For example, wine can be:
- uncountable (like water), e.g. “I drank too much/a lot of wine“
- uncountable (using a counter, e.g. a bottle of / a glass of), e.g. “I bought a bottle of wine“
- countable singular, e.g. “I had a wine” (meaning a glass of wine)
- plural, e.g. “I had 3 wines” (meaning 3 glasses of wine)
Other nouns which can be used as either countable or uncountable:
- beer vs beers (=glasses or bottles of beer)
- cheese vs cheeses (=types of cheese)
- fruit vs fruits (=types of fruit)
- chocolate (=from a bar of chocolate) vs chocolates (=in a box of assorted chocolates)
ANSWERS
- J
- A
- E
- D
- F
- L
- C
- K
- G
- H
- B
- I