GLOW: Grammar Lessons On the Web
For the exclusive use of employees of the U.S. Department of State--by Tillyer Associates

Count and Non-count nouns
also known as
Countable nouns and Uncountable nouns

You can count how many you have. You can't count how much you have.

chairs	hair
boys	water
computers	coffee
cars	sand
pictures	milk
houses	transportation
pencils	communication
radios	news
newspapers	information
bottles	wine

Some nouns are countable. You can add an -s to plural countable nouns: cars, pencils, boys.
You can use a or an with a singular countable noun: a car, an egg, a boy. You can use the word many with countable nouns: many cars.

Some nouns are uncountable (noncount). Uncountable nouns don't have plurals. You can't add an -s to uncountable nouns: information, transportation, milk. You can't use a or an with uncountable nouns.

You can use much, a lot of, a little with uncountable nouns: much traffic, a lot of information, a little milk.

With count nouns, you can use certain determiners such as a few or several. You can also use some. You can also use some with uncountable nouns, but you cannot use a few or several with uncountable nouns.

Yes: There were several new chairs in the room.
Yes: There were a few new chairs in the room.
Yes: There were some new chairs in the room.
Yes: There was some new information in the report.
No: There were some new information in the report.
No: There were several new information in the report
No: There was some new informations in the report.

Practice #1 Practice #2 List of Lessons