LEO Assignment - My Native English is not English

Knowing the difference between count and noncount nouns will help you do the following: 

- Use the noun plural ending -s correctly

·         - Use words that express quantities, such as little, much, . . .

Count vs. Noncount

The main difference between count and noncount nouns is whether or not the things they refer to can be counted.

Count nouns refer to things that can be divided up into smaller units which are separate and distinct from one another. They usually refer to what can individually be seen or heard:

Car, desk, bed, heart, book, paper, pen, mirror, finger, dancer

Noncount nouns refer to things that cannot be counted because they are regarded as wholes which cannot be divided into parts. They often refer to abstractions and occasionally have a collective meaning:

Progress, love, coolness, warmth, weather, courage, importance

Illustration: Think of the batter from which a cake is made. Before putting the batter into the oven, you cannot divide it into its parts because it is a liquid mix. Once it has been baked, however, it becomes solid enough to be cut into pieces. Think of noncount nouns as the batter which forms a mass, and think of the pieces of cake as the count nouns which may be numbered and distributed.

Pluralizing

The Rules

• Count nouns can be pluralized by adding a final -s to the nouns.
• Noncount nouns cannot be not pluralized at all.

This rule works for the nouns in the list of examples in the first section.

Exception: The rule needs to be slightly revised for a number of nouns. Certain nouns in English belong to both classes: they have both a noncount and a count meaning. Normally, the noncount meaning is abstract and general, and the count meaning is concrete and specific.

Compare the changes in meaning of the following nouns if they work as count or noncount nouns:

Count:

-          The researcher had to overcome some specific problems to collect the data.

-          The political arguments took the nation to a situation of political instability.

-          There were bright lights and harsh sounds.

Noncount:

-          The researcher had no problem finding studies that supported his view.

-          The author’s argument was unsupported and stereotypical.

-          Light travels faster than sound.

Special Case: A special case is the use of the mass/count distinction for the purpose of classification. The nouns which function both ways mainly denote foods and beverages: food(s), drink(s), wine(s), bread(s), coffee(s), and fruit(s).

Examples:

Units: Several types of French wines are grown in the French Riviera.

Mass: The crops of Columbia coffee are more resistant to dry climate than are the crops of Brazilian coffee.

A Revision of the Rules: The exceptions require that the rule for pluralizing be revised: count nouns and nouns used in a count sense can be pluralized; noncount nouns and nouns used in a noncount sense cannot.

Pluralizes with –s: Count Noun, Count Use

Does not Pluralize: Noncount Noun, Noncount Use