rice
safety
salt
sand
security
silence
sleep
strength
snow
spite
status
stuff
teaching
technology
time
trade
training
transport
travel
trust
truth
violence
waste
water
wealth
weather
welfare
wind
work
worth
youth
1.26 There are some words that are uncountable nouns in English, but that refer to things that are considered countable in other languages.
Here is a list of the most common uncountable nouns of this type:
advice
baggage
furniture
hair
homework
information
knowledge
luggage
machinery
money
news
progress
research
spaghetti
traffic
quantifying: some rice, a bowl of rice
1.27 Although uncountable nouns refer to things that cannot be counted and are not used with numbers, you often want to talk about an amount of something that is expressed by an uncountable noun.
Sometimes, you can do this by putting an indefinite determiner such as all, enough, little, or some in front of the noun.
Do you have enough money?
There’s some chocolate cake over there.
For more information on indefinite determiners that can be used with uncountable nouns, see paragraph 1.225.
You can also put a quantity expression in front of the noun. For example, when you refer to water you can say drops of water, a cup of water, four gallons of water, and so on.
The use of quantity expressions with uncountable nouns is explained in paragraphs 2.194 to 2.207.
mass nouns
1.28 When you are sure that your reader or hearer will understand that a quantity of something is being referred to, you do not need to use a quantity expression.
For example, in a restaurant you can ask for three cups of coffee, but you can also ask for three coffees because the person you are talking to will know that you mean three cups of coffee. In this way, the uncountable noun coffee has become countable.
Nouns used in this way are called mass nouns.
1.29 Mass nouns are often used to refer to quantities of a particular kind of food or drink.
We spent two hours talking over coffee and biscuits in her study.
We stopped for a coffee at a small café.
1.30 Similarly, some uncountable nouns can be mass nouns when they refer to types of something. For example, cheese is usually an uncountable noun but you can talk about a large range of cheeses.
…plentiful cheap beer.
…profits from low-alcohol beers.
We were not allowed to buy wine or spirits at lunch time.
We sell a wide variety of wines and liqueurs.
Mass nouns referring to different types of a substance are mainly used in technical contexts. For example steel is nearly always an uncountable noun, but in contexts where it is important to distinguish between different kinds of steel it can be a mass noun.
…imports of European steel.
…the use of small amounts of nitrogen in making certain steels.
list of mass nouns
1.31 The following is a list of frequently used mass nouns:
adhesive
beer
brandy
bread
cake
cheese
claret
cloth
coal
coffee
cognac
coke
cotton
curry
deodorant
detergent
disinfectant
dye
fabric
fertilizer
fuel
fur
gin
glue
ink
insecticide
iron
jam
jelly
juice
lager
liqueur
lotion
material
meat
medicine
metal
milk
oil
ointment
ore
paint
perfume
pesticide
plastic
poison
preservative
ribbon
salad
sauce
sherry
soap
soil
soup
steel
sugar
tea
vodka
whisky
wine
wood
wool
yarn
yoghurt
nouns that are uncountable and countable
1.32 There are also some other nouns that can be uncountable nouns when they refer to a thing in general, and countable nouns when they refer to a particular instance of it.
Some nouns are commonly both uncountable nouns and countable nouns. For example, victory refers to the idea of winning in general but a victory refers to a particular occasion when someone wins.
He worked long and hard and finally led his team to victory.
…his victory in the Australian Grand Prix.
Many parents were alarmed to find themselves in open conflict with the church.
Hundreds of people have died in ethnic conflicts.
Some uncountable nouns are rarely or never countable nouns; that is, they do not occur in a plural form, or with a number.
…a collection of fine furniture.
We found Alan weeping with relief and joy.
He saved money by refusing to have a telephone.
uncountable nouns ending in -s
1.33 Some nouns that end in -s and look as if they are plural are in fact uncountable nouns. This means that when they are the subject of a verb, the verb is in the singular.
These nouns refer mainly to subjects of study, activities, games, and diseases.
Physics is fun.
Politics plays a large part in village life.
Economics is the oldest of the social sciences.
Darts is a very competitive sport.
Measles is in most cases a relatively harmless disease.
Here are three lists of uncountable nouns ending in -s.
These nouns refer to subjects of study and activities:
acoustics
aerobics
aerodynamics
aeronautics
athletics
classics
economics
electronics
genetics
gymnastics
linguistics
logistics
mathematics
mechanics
obstetrics
physics
politics
statistics
thermodynamics
Note that some of these nouns are occasionally used as plural nouns, especially when you are talking about a particular person’s work or activities.
His politics are clearly right-wing.
These nouns refer to games:
billiards
bowls
cards