Countable Nouns

Certain things that we see around have names and these names are called nouns. Now, when we can see say three girls, four chocolates and so on, i.e., are countable, we call these countable nouns. 

Nouns are specified into two forms, viz: countable and uncountable nouns and here will be focusing on countable nouns.

A countable noun can be distinguished from an uncountable noun in regard to both determiners and verbs. Let us say that an apple, a boy, so this is a singular form or even we say one man, one woman; these are countable nouns. Also, two horses, three men are countable nouns, but when we say, a milk, red soil, they are uncountable nouns. 

Here, we will understand countable nouns in detail along with the countable noun examples. Along with this, we will look at some facts that will help us understand this concept a bit more with illustrative comparisons.

Countable Nouns - Definition 

From the above text, we can understand that in English grammar, a countable noun is a noun that we can modify by a number and that comes in both singular and plural forms. Additionally, countable nouns can co-occur with quantificational determiners such as every, each, several, and so on.

Countable Noun Examples - Singular and Plural Countable Nouns 

Basically, we are aware that the things that can be counted using numbers are countable and when they are nouns, they become countable nouns by using an article, like a or an.

Some of the singular nouns are as follows:

1. Using “a”

• I own a Vic - B  206 flat.

• I purchased a DELL laptop yesterday.

• I prefer a phone to a laptop for video conferencing.

• I like to go for a picnic during summer.

2. Using “an”

• I have an AUDI car in my hometown.

• I like to have an orange after every meal.

• I asked my father to gift my friend an ASUS laptop on his birthday.

• A dog is an animal that guards your home selflessly.

Some of the plural countable nouns are as follows:

• She has three 24-carat gold jewelleries.

• I own three houses.

• I would like to borrow both the volumes of HC Verma Physics.

• How many friends did you have in your school days?

• Several people are suffering from Covid-19.

Countable Noun Examples - A Bit More To Understand

We know that a countable noun is anything that can be counted, whether an object is singular, like a dog, a house, a friend, etc. or plural, like a few books, lots of oranges, etc. 

Now, let us go through a few countable noun examples that will help you to understand the basic difference between countable and uncountable nouns.

The point to be noted is that singular verbs are added with singular countable nouns, while plural verbs with plural countable nouns.

• There are at least twenty Continental restaurants in Bandra Bandstand Promenade, Mumbai.

• Trisha likes taking a lot of photographs during her trip to Nainital.

• I found the book “You can heal your life” as the best self-help book.

• How many candles would you like to have on your birthday cake?

• You have made several beautiful paintings that can be publicized for a recognition of your art.

• There’s a beautiful gown hanging at the front of Orbit Mall in Malad, Mumbai.

Countable and Uncountable Noun - Anomalous Case

For instance, the following is the sentence:

• First Example: 

We want three large bottles of mineral water.

Anomalous case - As it has both countable “three”  and uncountable “water”. However, the counts of water are so, it will be a countable noun.

Even if the sentence was: We want the large bottles of water, then also it was countable because the number of bottles is countable.

• Another Example:

My mother uses low-fat Amul Delicious butter for baking the cakes - Uncountable 

Here, we are talking about Butter which is uncountable, so the sentence talks about uncountable nouns.

Conclusion

So, we understand that countable nouns can be used with determiners some, several, every, each. However, uncountable nouns can be used for quantities, like milk, cheese, water, intelligence, information, and so on.