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