Countable-Uncountable

Decimos que un sustantivo (cosa) es contable cuando lo podemos contar.

Por ejemplo: a car[eikar], un coche, a house [ahaus] una casa, an earring [aniring] un pendiente/zarcillo.

Qu es un sustantivo incontable ? Uncountable noun. [ankaunteb naun]

Cuando no podemos contar una cosa, decimos que es un sustantivo incontable.

Por ejemplo: water [guater], agua, money [mani], dinero, butter [bater] , mantequilla, etc.

La idea es que son objetos que constituyen una masa que no se puede separar. Por qu no se pueden separar? Porque son materiales de una sola pieza o lquidos. En general, no admiten el plural (hay algunas excepciones), ni tampoco numeracin. Por ejemplo no podemos decir; milks (leches), rices (arroces), one money, two waters; un dinero, dos aguas.

Observacin: Muchos de estos sustantivos incontables se pueden transformar en contables con la ayuda de otro sustantivo. Veamos ejemplos:

Water [guater] incontable -----> A glass of water [aiglasof guater] glass=contable. Un vaso de agua. Money [mani] incontable------> How many coins do you have?[haumeni coinsduiuhav?] coin= contable. Cuntas monedas tienes?

Uno de los problemas que presentan los sustantivos contables e incontables es saber cundo se acompaan de much many, few little, etc..

Contable Inconta Ambos ble

Ejemplos:

Many (muchos)/ muchas

How many days are you staying ? [haumani deis ariusstein. Cuntos das te quedas?Days contables. How much money do you want? [haumach maniduiuguant ?] Cunto dinero quieres? Money es incontable.

Much (mucho/a)

X Few (pocos/ pocas) He is a man of few words. [hisa manof fiugourds]. l es un hombre de pocas palabras. Words es contable.

X Little (poco/ poca)

They have little knowledge. [deihav litel noledche]. Ellos/as tienen pocos conocimientos . Knowledge es incontable.

(*)A lot (s ) (of) (mucho/s /as)

He has a lot of money . [hihasalot ofmani]. l tiene mucho dinero. Money es incontable. They have lots of cars. [dei havlotsofkars]. Ellos/as tienen muchos coches. Carses contable.

(*) Consejo: Fjate como a lot of puede ser utlizado con sustantivos contable e incontables. Por ello, si no sabes si utilizar much o many, utiliza a lot of. Para little y few no nos sirve esta alternativa, as que de momento hay que aprender cundo se utiliza little y cundo few.

Some/any

Cuando preguntamos o afirmamos con los sustantivos incontables muchas veces se antepone al sustantivo los adjetivos some any. Por ejemplo: Do you have some ice? [duiu havsamais] Tienes hielo?

Cul es la diferencia entre some y any?

Utilizamos some cuando creemos que hay algo de lo que pedimos o a lo que nos referimos. Por ejemplo si digo: Can I have some tea?[Kenai havsamti?] Me puede dar t? Estoy en una cena y seguramente estoy viendo que el camarero est sirviendo t a otros comensales, as que asumo que hay algo de t para mi.

Utilizamos any cuando ignoramos si hay algo de lo que pedimos o a lo que nos referimos. Por ejemplo si digo: Is there any tea left? [Isdereni tleft?] Queda algo de t? Seguramente estoy pensando que el resto de los invitados se han bebido todo el t y ya no queda nada para mi.

Es una diferencia muy sutil que slo depende de lo que piense la persona que habla, as que yo creo que no tiene demasiada importancia.

OJO! No obstante, hay que tener en cuenta que any no slo significa algo; tambin significa cualquier/a o ningun/o/a. Por ejemplo: Any idea will be good. [eniaida guilbigud]. Cualquier idea ser buena. I don't like any of them. [aidon't laik eniofdem]. No me gusta ninguno de ellos.

Veamos ejemplos de sustantivos incontables con los que utilizamos some o any.

Ejemplo 1: Can you lend me some money? [kaniu lendmi sammani?]Me puedes prestar (algo de) dinero? Ejemplo 2: Is there any milk in the fridge? [Isderenimilkindefridch?] Hay (algo) leche en la nevera? Ejemplo 3: I'll need some sugar. [ailnid samshugar] Necesitar (algo de) azcar. Ejemplo 4: Do you have any idea? [duiu hav eni aida] Tienes alguna idea?

Observacin. En ingls es posible preguntar sin some o any pero (yo creo) es menos habitual. Parece como si en ingls fuese necesario especificar que slo quieres un poco de. En espaol, en cambio, no es necesario. Si yo pregunto: Hay leche? Se entiende ya que es algo de leche.

Adems de saber utilizar much, many, some, etc. debers conocer los sustantivos incontables ms comunes y los que presentan ms problemas. En algunos casos est claro cuando un sustantivo es contable o incontable; pero ocasiones es difcil saberlo. Adems, muchos sustantivos pueden ser contables o incontables dependiendo de si forman parte de una coleccin (y por tanto, se pueden separar) y otros no.

En la siguiente tabla relaciono los sustantivos incontables ms comunes: Sustantivo Accomodation [akomodeishon] Advice [advis] Baggage [bgech] Bread [bred] Chaos[kios] Chess [chess] Damage [damech] Grass [gras] Furniture [fernicher] Significado Alojamiento Consejo Equipaje Pan Caos Ajedrez Dao Hierba, csped Mueble(s)

Equipment[ekuipment] Equipo

Information [informeishon] Knowledge [noledch] Luck [lack] Luggage [laguech] Money [mani] News [nius] Permission [permishion] Poetry [poetri] Progress [progres] Publicity [pabliciti] Research [riserch] Rubbish [rabish] Scenery [sineri] Spaghetti [sspagueti] Thunder [zander] Traffic [trafic] Travel [travel] Weather [gueder] Work [guork]

Informacin Conocimiento Suerte Equipaje Dinero Noticias Permiso Poesa Progreso Publicidad Investigacin Basura Escenario Espagueti Trueno Trfico Viaje Tiempo Trabajo

Nota: Las pronunciaciones que aparecen entre corchetes son slo aproximadas y no sustituyen al alfabeto fontico, que es el correcto.

El tema de los sustantivos contables e incontables da para mucho ms, pero de momento nos quedaremos aqu y practicaremos.

The difference between countable and uncountable nouns

Countable nouns can be counted (a/one book, a lot of books), whereas uncountable nouns cannot (a/one news, two freedoms); therefore, they always take a singular form and are followed by a singular verb. Bear in mind that there are nouns which are countable in other languages but uncountable in English, or vice versa. When in doubt, you should always consult a dictionary. However, certain kinds of nouns are usually countable or uncountable. These are listed in the table below.

Determiners with countable and uncountable nouns (SOME, ANY, NO, MANY, MUCH, FEW, LITTLE etc.) Determiners modify nouns and are always placed before the noun which they modify. Countable and uncountable nouns may take different determiners. (SING: singular noun; PL: plural noun)

Example sentences

Notes: determiners with countable and uncountable nouns When quantifiers are used with uncountable nouns, they form units of these nouns, which then can be counted. Depending on the kind of uncountable noun, different quantifiers are used.

Obviously, countable nouns, too, can take quantifiers (in this case also called collective nouns), to form units.

Nouns with countable and uncountable meaning Certain nouns have both countable and uncountable meanings; or rather we should say that these nouns are homonyms (same form with different meanings), where one expresses a countable, the other an uncountable concept. Below are some examples.

Nouns which are always plural There are certain nouns which only have plural forms and, consequently, are followed by a plural verb. Many of these are used with the phrase a pair of as they refer to something made up of two parts.

Nouns with a plural form and a singular meaning Some nouns in English seem to have a plural form, that is, they end in -s, but in fact they have a singular meaning:

Nouns ending in -ics can take both a singular (if they are considered as the name of a science) or a plural verb (if they express a specific application of the science):

Notes: nouns with a plural form and a singular meaning There are also nouns which end in -s and the same form can function as a singular and a plural noun as well:

Nouns with a singular form and a plural meaning (group nouns)

These nouns have a singular form but they can take a singular or a plural verb depending on whether we mean the groups as a whole (singular) or the individual members in the group (plural):

The nouns people (meaning more than one person) and police are always plural:

Note that people can have the meaning "the members of a nation, religion or race", in which case it is considered as a singular noun:

In this case people can also be used in a plural form:

Irregular plural forms Usually the plural of a noun is formed by adding an -s to the singular form:

For certain nouns it is true that if the singular noun ends in -f or -fe, the plural ending is -ves:

However, there are nouns which do not follow this rule:

And there are a number of nouns which have irregular plural forms. Here are a few examples:

Words of Latin or Greek origin may keep their original plural forms: