Transcript THE NONCOUNT NOUN RECOGNIZE A NONCOUNT NOUN WHEN YOU SEE ONE.

THE NONCOUNT NOUN
RECOGNIZE A NONCOUNT NOUN
WHEN YOU SEE ONE.
Nouns name people, places, things, and ideas.
Most nouns have a singular and plural form.
a surfer/ two surfers
a pickle/ pickles
Some nouns, however, have only a singular
form; you cannot add a number to the front or
an s to the end of these words. This group of
nouns is called NONCOUNT NOUNS.
Examples:
After two months of rainstorms, Chris
carries his umbrella everywhere in
anticipation of more bad weather.
rainstorms = count noun
weather = noncount noun
Because Big Toe Joe has ripped all four chairs
with his claws, Rachel wants to buy new
furniture and find the cat a new home.
chairs = count noun
furniture = noncount noun
Know the different
categories of noncount
nouns.
Abstractions
Example: We practice patriotism by
celebrating the Fourth of July.
advice, courage, enjoyment, fun, help,
honesty, information, intelligence,
knowledge, patience, etc.
Activities
Example: We played Monopoly for six
hours last Saturday.
homework, swimming, housework, music,
Scrabble, Monopoly, reading, singing,
sleeping, soccer, tennis, work, etc.
Food
Example: Grandma Brown baked
homemade bread for dinner.
beef, bread, butter, fish, macaroni, meat,
popcorn, pork, poultry, toast, etc.
Particles or Grains
Example: Do you like pepper on your
french fries?
corn, dirt, dust, flour, hair, rice, salt,
sugar, wheat, and pepper (black, white or
ground, but not green or bell)
Gases
Example: Exhaust from cars can cause
pollution.
air, exhaust, hydrogen, oxygen,
nitrogen, pollution, smog,
smoke, steam, etc.
Groups of Similar Items
Example – Katy placed her suitcase on the rack
with her family’s luggage.
Noncount
Count
luggage
clothing
furniture
mail
jewelry
money
suitcase
shirt
chair
letter
necklace
dollar
Things Made of Small Pieces
Example:
Mr. Brown was unhappy when his wife insisted
they plant more grass in the front yard.
grass, sand, gravel, dirt, clay, etc.
Liquids
Example: Sam tried to fill the pool by
pouring water from a bucket.
blood, coffee, gasoline, milk, oil, soup, syrup,
tea, water, wine, etc.
Natural Events
Example: When he first moved to
Wisconsin, Jose liked snow, but after five
years he was missing sunshine.
electricity, gravity, heat, humidity,
moonlight, rain, snow, sunshine,
thunder, weather, etc.
Materials
Example: We had a big stack of lumber
in the back yard.
aluminum, asphalt, chalk, cloth, concrete,
cotton, glue, lumber, wood, wool, etc.
Understand that some nouns are both
noncount and count!
Sometimes a word that means one
thing as a noncount noun has a slightly
different meaning if it also has a countable
version. Remember, then, that the
classifications count and noncount
are not absolute.
Time is a good example.
When you use this word to mean the unceasing
flow of experience that includes past, present,
and future, with no distinct beginning or end, then
time is a noncount noun.
Read this example:
Time dragged as Simon sat through yet another boring
chick flick with his girlfriend.
Time = noncount because it has no specific
beginning and, for poor Simon, no foreseeable end.
When time refers to a specific experience which
starts at a certain moment and ends after a number
of countable units [minutes, hours, days, etc.], then
the noun is count.
Here is an example:
On his last to Disney World, Joe rode Space
Mountain twenty-seven times.
Times = count because a ride on Space Mountain is
a measurable unit of experience, one that you can
clock with a stopwatch.
Kobe Bryant uses a basketball (count noun)to
play the game of basketball (noncount noun).