Countable and uncountable nouns in English: advice, information, news and the ones you simply have to learn

English sorts every noun into one of two boxes, and then refuses to explain itself. Book is countable: one book, two books, a book. Advice is uncountable: no plural, no number, no a. You cannot say two advices, and an advice is one of the most reliable markers of a learner in the wild. The distinction sounds like it should follow logic, and for the obvious cases it does. For the rest, it does not, and the fastest way through is to accept that early and learn the awkward ones as a list.

This page assumes you have met the idea in passing on the articles and quantifiers pages. Here it gets the full treatment, because almost every article error and every much or many error in English traces back to this one decision.

Countable is a fact about the word, not about the world

This is the point that unlocks the topic. Countability is grammar, not physics.

Sugar comes in grains you could, in principle, count. English calls it uncountable. A suitcase can obviously be counted, but the word luggage cannot. Money exists in discrete coins, yet money has no plural, while coin does. The world has not changed; the word has.

Other languages draw the line in different places, which is exactly why the errors are so consistent. French un conseil, Spanish un consejo and German ein Rat are all countable, so speakers of those languages reach for an advice and it feels perfectly reasonable. It is not reasonable. It is just English.

Three tests

When you are unsure, run the noun through these.

1. Can you put a number in front of it? Two cars works, so car is countable. Two advices does not, so advice is not.
2. Does it take a plural ending? Books, friends, ideas all pluralise. Information, music, work do not.
3. Can it follow a or an? A job, an idea, a chair are fine. An information is not.

A noun that fails all three is uncountable, and one more thing follows automatically: it takes a singular verb. The information is wrong. Her advice was useful. The news is good.

The uncountable nouns that catch everyone

Here is the group that causes the actual damage. Learn these and you have removed most of your countability errors in one go.

There is no rule hiding underneath that table. People will tell you that uncountable nouns are abstract, and then idea, problem, fact and reason walk past, all countable and all abstract. They will tell you uncountables are masses, and then furniture turns up, which is a set of separate objects. The pattern is too leaky to trust. Learn the twenty words. It takes an afternoon and it lasts for good.

The s that lies: news, maths, politics

A small group of nouns end in s and look plural, but behave as singular.

• The news is on at six.
• Maths is my worst subject.
• Politics is a dirty business.

The same goes for physics and economics. Nobody says the news are in English, however plural it looks, and getting this right is a quick and cheap win.

Counting the uncountable

You often do need to count these things, and English gives you a workaround: put a countable unit word in front and link the two with of. The unit takes the plural, and the uncountable noun stays untouched.

• a piece of advice -> two pieces of advice
• a bit of news -> several bits of news
• a glass of water -> three glasses of water
• a cup of tea -> four cups of tea
• a bottle of milk -> two bottles of milk
• a piece of furniture -> six pieces of furniture

Piece is the general-purpose unit and will rescue you almost anywhere: a piece of advice, a piece of news, a piece of information, a piece of work. Bit does the same job more casually and usually means a smaller amount: a bit of help, a bit of luck.

Nouns that go both ways

Plenty of nouns sit in both boxes, and the meaning changes when they move. This is not an exception to the system; it is the system working.

Compare them in pairs and the difference is obvious:

• Her hair is long. / There is a hair in my food.
• I need paper. / I read it in a paper.
• Is there room for me? / Is there a room free?
• He has experience. / We had a strange experience.

Note the last one especially. I have experience and I have an experience are not near-misses; they mean different things.

What the choice changes downstream

Countability is not a label you attach and forget. It decides three other things in the sentence.

• The verb. Uncountable nouns are singular. The information is here.
• The quantifier. Much and little go with uncountables, many and few with countables. Much money, many coins. Full detail on the quantifiers page.
• The article. A and an are impossible with an uncountable noun, so your only choices are the or no article at all. That is why an advice fails: not because advice is wrong, but because an cannot get near it. See articles.

Some is the useful word that ignores the split entirely: some books, some advice. When you are unsure and need to keep talking, some will not let you down.

Common mistakes

Ranked by how often learners actually make them.

1. Adding a plural to an uncountable noun. Informations, advices, furnitures, equipments, researches. None of these exist. The noun stays singular and any counting happens on the unit word in front of it.
2. Putting a or an in front of an uncountable noun. An advice, a information, a good weather. Use no article, or some, or a unit: some advice, a piece of advice, good weather.
3. Treating news as plural. The news are bad is wrong every time. The news is bad.
4. much with a countable noun, many with an uncountable one. How many money and how much people both fail. Fix the noun type first and the quantifier follows.
5. Missing that a noun has changed sides. I bought two papers is fine if you mean two newspapers, and wrong if you mean two sheets. If you want the material, say two sheets of paper.

Practice

Countable or uncountable? Then fix the sentence if it is wrong. Answers are below.

1. She gave me two ___ advice.
2. How ___ (much / many) information do you need?
3. The news ___ (is / are) not good this morning.
4. There is a ___ in my food. (one strand of hair)
5. I would like a ___ of water, please.

Answers: 1. two pieces of advice (advice needs a unit word) 2. much (information is uncountable) 3. is (news is singular in spite of the s) 4. hair (countable here, meaning one single strand) 5. glass (the standard unit for water)