Uncountable nouns

Hello! Welcome to 6 Minute Vocabulary. I’m Neil.

And I’m Catherine. In this show we’re talking about uncountable nouns.

Yes, we are. So that’s nouns that you can’t count, like water , money and research . We’ll show you plenty of examples.

.and we’ll also bring you a top tip for recognising uncountable nouns.

But let’s start by listening to Colin. He’s a travel agent.

While you listen, think about this question: what might you need from your bank before you go abroad? Here’s Colin.

It’s time to start planning your summer travel ! Do some research before you go. Are there good reviews of the accommodation ? How much baggage can you take and what’s the best way to take money abroad? Do you need to get some advice from your bank? Will the traffic be bad on the way to the airport?

So that was Colin. We asked you: What might you need from your bank before you go abroad?

And the answer is: You might need some advice .

That’s right: some advice . Advice means ideas and suggestions about what to do. Now, did you notice that advice is not plural? We never say advices in English because advice is an uncountable noun. You can’t make advice plural, like you can in some other languages.

And with uncountable nouns, we don’t use articles a or an . We say some advice , not an advice . Now listen out for three more uncountable nouns in this clip.

It’s time to start planning your summer travel ! Do some research before you go. Are there good reviews of the accommodation ?

And the uncountable nouns in that clip were: travel, research and accommodation

And activities like travel, work and homework are usually uncountable.

Information words like research , information and advice are uncountable too.

Yes, they’re not usually plural in English, but we can add the words a piece of to lots of uncountable nouns if we like. So we can say a piece of information or two pieces of advice.

That’s right. The other uncountable noun in that clip was accommodation . Accommodation means ‘places to live or spend the night’, like rooms, flats and houses.

So accommodation describes the groups of places that you can stay like flats, houses, students halls of residence. And group words are often uncountable, so there’s no plural form. Fruit , food and weather are group words too. We don’t usually say fruits , foods and weathers .

That’s right. Now, let’s have another clip. Can you spot any more uncountable nouns?

How much baggage can you take and what’s the best way to take money abroad? Will the traffic be bad on the way to the airport?

And we had baggage , money and traffic . In some languages these words are often plural.

but not in English. In English, they are all group words.

That’s right. So baggage means a group of bags.

It’s money for coins or notes.

And traffic for cars, lorries, buses.

And we’re talking about uncountable nouns. We’ve seen that some activity nouns are uncountable, and some group nouns are uncountable. Shall we now talk about more types of uncountable nouns, Catherine?

Go on then. So we’ve got liquids and gases. Water and air are uncountable.

Yes, they are. Materials and substances like wood and salt are uncountable too.

Then there are words for feelings and ideas, so happiness and education .

And also subjects like history and biology .

That’s right. But be careful with subjects like physics or economics .

Yes, they end with the letter -s, so they look plural, but in fact they’re usually uncountable too.

So we use them with a singular verb, just like other uncountable nouns. Physics is complicated.

.and Economics isn’t easy.

6 Minute Vocabulary from BBC Learning English

And it’s quiz time! Number one: Is the word furniture countable or uncountable?

And the answer is - it’s uncountable. It’s a group word like baggage . It means things like tables and chairs.

Very good. And number two: is this sentence correct or wrong? Please can you give me some informations?

That is not correct. Information is uncountable so it’s some information without an - s , not some informations .

Very good! And the last one: Which is correct: a) it was beautiful weather on Saturday. Or b) it was a beautiful weather on Saturday.

The answer’s a) it was beautiful weather on Saturday.

And that’s the end of the quiz. Well done to you if you got them all right.

But before we go, here’s a tip. When you see a noun, think carefully about whether it belongs to one of these types: activity words, information words or group words. If it does, then it’s probably uncountable.

There’s more about this at bbclearningenglish.com. Join us again soon for more 6 Minute Vocabulary.

Bye!