Countable and Uncountable nouns – Sustantivos contables y no contables

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LESSON 24 – LECCION 24 GRAMATICA – Countable and Uncountable nouns en inglés

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Today we are going to talk about countable and uncountable nouns and learn when and how to use them correctly. Please remember to practice and to do the exercises at the end of the post.

Hoy hablaremos de los sustantivos contables y no contables. Aprenderemos como usarlos y algunas reglas.Antes de empezar esta leccíon recomiendo repasar la siguente leccion que trata del uso de there is/are: CLICK AQUI

Countable and Uncountable nouns en inglés

A noun renames a person, place or thing. If a noun is viewed as countable if:

• A or an can be used in front of it : a table, an egg
• It has a plural form : there are two tables
• It can be used in a question with how many: How many rooms are there?
• A number can be used before it: four computers

If a noun is viewed as uncountable:

• a/an cannot be used in front of it: Cereal is healthy
• it does not have a plural form: I like butter (NOT BUTTERS)
• it can be in a question with how much: How much sugar would you like?
• a number isn’t used in front of it: It has little caffeine.
• it always takes a “singular” verb: Milk is good for you.

*** En si los sustantivos contables son aquellos que puedes contar (poner un numero antes del sustantivo: una mesa pero no una agua Todos los liquidos como agua, leche, cerveza, vino son no contables (EN ESPAÑOL PUEDE SER DISTINTO). Tambien las carnes son no contables como pollo, pescado etc.

TABLE

USING THERE IS / ARE WITH COUNTABLE and UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS

Countable

Uncountable

Singular

Plural

One form

(+)There is a chair. There are some chairs. There is some water
(-) There isn’t a table. There aren’t any tables. There isn’t any cheese.
(?) Is there a bathroom? Are there any bathrooms? Is there any coffee?

Conclusions from the table:
• With countable nouns we have two forms: singular and plural and when we refer to uncountable nouns we only use one form.
• When we use the singular form with countable nouns we use a/an and with plurals we use some/any.
• With the uncountable nouns we do not use a/an and we can use some/any
• With countable nouns some/any means “an indefinite number”
• With uncountable nouns some/any means “a portion of”

Conclusiones:

Como vemos cuando un sustantivo es contable hay dos formas: singular y plural pero con los no constables solo hay una forma. Nunca usen la forma plural cuando usen los no contables. También cabe resaltar que cuando usamos el some /any con los contables significa algunos/algunas o en negativo ningun pero cuando se usa con los no contables quiere decir algo de. Veamos:

There are some books on the table. (Hay algunos libros)
There aren’t any books. (No hay ningun lbro) Ojo que en español se usa la forma singular de libro pero en inglés no.
Are there any books? (Hay algún libro)
There is milk. (Hay algo de leche)
There isn’t any milk. (No hay nada de leche)
Is there any milk? (Hay algo de leche?)

ONLINE EXERCISES – EJERCICIOS EN LINEA  de Countable and Uncountable nouns en inglés:

Identify if the noun is countable or uncountable (Identificar si el sustantivo es contable o no)
http://www.usingenglish.com/quizzes/210.html
http://www.usingenglish.com/quizzes/210.html

There is or there are?
http://www.better-english.com/easier/counta.htm

LINK de Vocabulario mas lección (formato PDF)
http://fds.oup.com/www.oup.com/pdf/elt/catalogue/9780194307260-a.pdf