Uncountable nouns
Names of substances considered generally uncountable:
Bread cream gold paper tea beer dust ice sand wafer
cloth gin jam soap wine coffee glass oil stone wood
Milk, soup, etc are uncountable nouns.
We cannot use a or a number in front of them. We do not usually say a milk or two soups.
But we can say a carton of milk or two tins of soup. Here are some more examples.
CARTON, TIN, ETC
MEASUREMENTS
PIECE, SLICE, ETC
a carton of orange juice
a tin of paint
a bottle of water
a box/packet of cereal
a jar of jam
a tube of toothpaste
a glass of water
a cup of coffee
a kilo of cheese
a piece of wood
a piece/slice of bread
a piece/sheet of paper
five metres of cable twenty litres of petrol
half a pound of butter a bar of chocolate
a loaf of bread
We can also use this structure with a plural noun after of.
a packet of crisps a box of matches three kilos of potatoes a collection of pictures