Study materials
Ukrainian can hand out three advices quite happily. English cannot, because advice is not counted.
three advices → three pieces of advice
English splits all nouns into two groups: those that exist as units and those that exist as a mass. The article, the plural and the form of the verb all depend on it.
Two groups of nouns
A noun is a word that names a person, an animal, a thing, a substance or an idea. It answers the question “who?” or “what?”.
Countable words name separate things you could point at one by one. Uncountable words name a substance, a material or an idea.
| Counted in units | Not counted |
|---|---|
| a banana, two bananas | milk |
| a chair, four chairs | furniture |
| an idea, many ideas | information |
Mostly the split matches common sense. The trouble is only in a handful of words where English thinks differently from us.
Uncountable words to remember
Ukrainian counts these words, and English does not.
advice, information, news
money, furniture, homework
bread, rice, cheese
All of them behave as singular, even where Ukrainian would use a plural.
The money is on the table.
The word news is especially sneaky. It ends in s and looks plural, but it is uncountable, so it takes is as well. The same goes for money. You can count coins, but not money as an amount.
The news is good.
ten coins, but some money
Article, plural and verb
There is an orange.
There are three oranges.
The water is cold.
There is and there are say that something exists or is somewhere. Is goes with one thing and with an uncountable word, are with several things. In the same way the cookies takes are, and the butter takes is.
There is some milk in the jug.
The cookies are on the plate.
A and an go only in front of a singular countable word. They never appear before an uncountable one.
The article a means “one”. Before a vowel sound it is written and said as an. What counts is the sound of the word straight after the article, so an old car, but a great idea.
an orange, an old car, a great idea
A singular countable word does not stand alone. Ukrainian has no articles, but in English cat needs a, an or another word like my in front of it.
I have cat. → I have a cat.
Before an uncountable word, some takes the place of a and means an amount of something. When we talk about something in general, nothing goes in front.
I need some sugar for the cake.
Music makes me happy.
A few words belong to both groups, and the meaning tells you which. A live chicken is counted, chicken on a plate is not. Coffee as a drink is not counted, but in a café a coffee means one cup of coffee.
A chicken lives on our balcony.
We have chicken for dinner.
Two coffees, please.
How to count the uncountable
Counting is still possible, but through a middleman: a container, a piece or a unit. The plural then goes onto that middleman.
a glass of water, two cups of coffee
a piece of advice, three pieces of information
a loaf of bread, a kilo of rice
The word after of never changes. Only what stands in front of it does.
There are many middlemen. Bottle, slice, bar, bowl and jar each go with their own things.
a bottle of milk, three slices of cheese
a bar of chocolate, a bowl of soup, a jar of honey
Here the word piece does not mean a broken bit, it means one unit. A piece of furniture is one item of furniture, and a piece of news is one item of news.
a piece of furniture, a piece of news
Common mistakes
The first is putting an article in front of an uncountable word.
I need an information. → I need some information.
The second is adding an s where no plural exists.
He gave me two advices. → He gave me two pieces of advice.
The third is taking a plural verb out of Ukrainian habit.
The money are mine. → The money is mine.
All three come from treating an uncountable word as countable, and one check catches them. Ask yourself whether you can say "one of these, two of these". If not, the word is uncountable. Then it takes no a or an, has no plural with s, and its verb is singular.
Trust neither the Ukrainian translation nor the s ending. Ukrainian uses a plural word for money, yet money is uncountable. News ends in s, but it is uncountable too.