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Count and Non Count Nouns

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Countable vs. Non-countable

A and an are used if the noun can be counted.
I ran into a post. (How many posts did you run into? Just one. Therefore, use a.)
I ate a piece of cake.
I saw an eagle.

The is used when the noun cannot be counted.

I ran into the water. (How many waters did you run into? The question doesn't make any sense because water is noncountable. Therefore, use the.)
I ate the rice.
I saw the milk spill.

Indefinite Articles: a and an
A and an signal that the noun modified is indefinite, referring to any member of a group. These indefinite articles are used with singular nouns when the noun is general; the corresponding indefinite quantity word some is used for plural general nouns. The rule is:

a a singular noun beginning with a consonant: a boy
an a singular noun beginning with a vowel: an elephant
some a plural noun: some girls

Note that in English, the indefinite articles are used to indicate membership in a profession, nation, or religion.

I am a teacher.
Brian is an Irishman.
Seiko is a practicing Buddhist.

Definite Article: the
The definite article is used before singular and plural nouns when the noun is particular or specific. The signals that the noun is definite, that it refers to a particular member of a group. Compare the indefinite and definite articles in the following pairs:

A dog (any dog)
The dog (that specific dog)
A book (any book)
The book (that specific book)

The is used with both singular and plural nouns:

the book, the cat
the books, the cats

The is not used with noncountable nouns referring to something in a general sense:

[no article] Coffee is a popular drink.
[no article] Japanese was his native language.
[no article] Intelligence is difficult to quantify.

The is used with non-countable nouns that are made more specific by a limiting modifying phrase or clause:

The coffee in my cup is too hot to drink.
The Japanese he speaks is often heard in the countryside.
The intelligence of animals is variable but undeniable.

The is also used when a noun refers to something unique:

the White House
the theory of relativity
the 1999 federal budget

Geographical uses of the
Do not use the before:

names of countries, except the Netherlands and the US (Italy, Mexico, Bolivia)
names of cities, towns, or states (Seoul, Manitoba, Miami)
names of streets (Washington Blvd., Main St.)
names of lakes and bays, except with a group of lakes like the Great Lakes (Lake Titicaca, Lake Erie)
names of mountains, except with ranges of mountains like the Andes or the Rockies or unusual names like the Matterhorn (Mount Everest, Mount Fuji)
names of continents (Asia, Europe)
names of islands except with island chains like the Aleutians, the Hebrides, or the Canary Islands (Easter Island, Maui, Key West)

Do use the before:

names of rivers, oceans and seas (the Nile, the Pacific, the Sea of Japan)
points on the globe (the Equator, the North Pole)
geographical areas (the Middle East, the West)
deserts, forests, gulfs, and peninsulas (the Sahara, the Persian Gulf, the Black Forest, the Iberian Peninsula)
First vs. Subsequent Mention
A or an is used to introduce a noun when it is mentioned for the first time in a piece of writing. The is used afterward each time you mention that same noun.
An awards ceremony at the Kremlin would not normally have attracted so much attention. But when it was leaked that Soviet President Konstantin Chernenko would be presenting medals to three cosmonauts, interest in the ceremony intensified. Time, Sept. 17, 1984.

Note: There is and there are can be used to introduce an indefinite noun at the beginning of a paragraph or essay.
General vs. Specific
A, an, and the can all be used to indicate that a noun refers to the whole class to which individual countable nouns belong. This use of articles is called generic, from the Latin word meaning "class."
A tiger is a dangerous animal. (any individual tiger)
The tiger is a dangerous animal. (all tigers: tiger as a generic category)

The difference between the indefinite a and an and the generic a and an is that the former means any one member of a class while the latter means all of the members of a class.
The omission of articles also expresses a generic (or general) meaning:

no article with a plural noun: Tigers are dangerous animals. (all tigers)
no article with a non-countable noun: Anger is a destructive emotion. (any kind of anger)

Omission of Articles
While some nouns combine with one article or the other based on whether they are countable or non-countable, others simply never take either article. Some common types of nouns that don't take an article are:
Names of languages and nationalities

Chinese
English
Spanish
Russian
Names of sports
volleyball
hockey
baseball
Names of academic subjects
mathematics
biology
history
computer science

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Count and Non-Count

An introduction to count and non-count (or mass) nouns in English. Knowing the difference between count and non-count nouns will help you do the following:

Use the noun plural ending -s
Use the appropriate form of the indefinite article (either a or an) and the definite article the
Use words that express quantities
In order to make correct choices in using these forms, you must first know how to tell whether a noun is countable or non-countable. The first section of this document will help you do that. The sections that follow discuss the use of the noun plural ending -s, articles, and quantifiers with countable and non-countable nouns as mentioned above in the bulleted list.

Count or Non-count?

The main difference between count and non-count nouns is whether you can count the things they refer to or not.
Count nouns refer to things that exist as separate and distinct individual units. They usually refer to what can be perceived by the senses.

Examples:

table
chair
word
finger
remark
girl
bottle
award
candidate

Non-count nouns refer to things that can't be counted because they are thought of as wholes that can't be cut into parts. They often refer to abstractions and occasionally have a collective meaning (for example, furniture).

Examples:

anger
furniture
warmth
courage
education
leisure
progress
weather
precision

Here is an illustration that may clarify the concept. Think of the batter from which a cake is made. Before you put the batter into the oven, it can't be divided into parts because it's a thick liquid. Once it has been baked, however, it becomes solid enough to be cut into pieces. Non-count nouns are like cake batter; count nouns are like pieces of cake.

Although such illustrations are of some use, they should not be taken too literally. It is not an accident that batter and cake were chosen to illustrate the mass vs. count distinction: in English batter is a mass noun, and cake is a count noun (but not in all situations: see "An Exception to the Rule" in the next section). Also, different languages divide up their nouns into count and non-count in different ways if they do so at all. Nouns that are countable in English may be non-countable in other languages, including your own, and vice versa. While the issue of countability is too complicated for us to categorize each noun absolutely, we can still describe some general patterns.
If you understand the difference in meaning between count and non-count nouns, you're ready to look at how it helps you make the grammatical choices listed above: 1) pluralizing, 2) using articles, and 3) using quantity words.

Pluralizing
The Rule

From the definitions of mass and count given above you may have already guessed the rule for pluralizing them:
most count nouns pluralize with -s
non-count nouns don't pluralize at all
This rule works for all of the nouns in the lists of examples in the first section. Check this rule for yourself before reading further.

An Exception to the Rule

For a number of nouns, the rule needs slight revision. Certain nouns in English belong to both classes: they have both a non-count and a count meaning. Normally the non-count meaning is abstract and general and the count meaning concrete and specific. Compare:

Count
I've had some difficulties finding a job.
The talks will take place in the Krannert building.
The city was filled with bright lights and harsh sounds.

Non-count
She succeeded in school with little difficulty.
I dislike idle talk.
Light travels faster than sound.

Note: A special case of the use of non-count nouns in a count sense has to do with classification. Sometimes a usually non-count noun can be understood as one item separate and distinct from other items of the same category. The nouns that function in this way often denote foods and beverages: food(s), drink(s), wine(s), bread(s), coffee(s), fruit(s), and so on. Examples:

There are several French wines to choose from. (= kinds of wine)
I prefer Sumatran coffees to Colombian. (= kinds of coffee)
We use a variety of different batters in our bakery. (= kinds of batter)
A recent entry into this class is homework, which at least among some students has the count plural homeworks in addition to its non-count use. (For example, "You're missing three of the homeworks from the first part of the course.") Because this usage is not firmly established and is likely to be considered nonstandard, you should check with your instructor before using it in writing.

A Revision of the Rule

These exceptions require that the rule for pluralizing be revised: count nouns and nouns used in a count sense pluralize; non-count nouns and nouns used in a non-count sense do not.
The two possibilities in each half of the rule require different choices. If you know that a particular noun must be either count or non-count and cannot be both, you need to decide only if it is possible to pluralize the noun. On the other hand, if you know that a particular noun may be used in either a count or non-count sense, then you need to decide whether it is appropriate to pluralize.
To summarize, we may put the rule in a chart, like this:

Pluralizes with -s
Doesn't Pluralize
Count Noun
XX
Count Use
XX
Non-count Noun
XX
Non-count Use
XX

Articles
Nouns and Articles

Choosing which article to use (if any) with a noun is a complex matter because the range of choices depends on whether the noun in question is 1) count or non-count and 2) singular or plural. Both count nouns (whether singular or plural) and non-count nouns take articles.
Combinations of Nouns and Articles
The following chart shows which articles go with which kinds of nouns. Notice that this, that, these, and those have been included because, like the, they mark the noun that they modify as definite, which means that the noun refers 1) to a unique individual or 2) to some person, event, or object known to both the writer and reader from their general knowledge or from what has been previously mentioned in a piece of writing.

a, an
the
this, that
these, those
no article
Count singular
XX XX XX
Count plural
XX XX XX
Non-count
XX XX XX

Quantity Terms
The following chart shows which quantity words go with which kinds of nouns. Note that quantity words can be used in combinations such as many more, many fewer, much more, and much less, any of which can be preceded by how to form questions or relative clauses. Negatives like not and no can also be applied to many of these terms.

much, less, little, a little, very little some, any, most, more, all, a lot of, no, none of the many, both, several, few/fewer/fewest, a few, one of the, a couple of each, every, any, one
Count singular
XX
Count plural
XX XX
Non-count
XX XX