Countable and uncountable nouns: Food

Food. You love it. You need it. But have you ever had trouble ordering food in a restaurant or a supermarket?

Chris will help you with these useful tips on countable and uncountable nouns on food!

Uncountable food nouns are things like:

milk, rice and sugar. For example, we don’t say ‘rices’. This is because grains of rice are numerous, and therefore difficult to count. This makes ‘rice’ an uncountable noun.  

For countable nouns, we can use the plural, for example, tomatoes, apples and bananas.

You also need to know how to use ‘some’ and ‘any’.

“Some” is positive: I have something. “Any” is negative: I don’t have anything.

These are also used when responding to questions. For example:

“Do you have any milk? Yes, I have some.

“Do you have any rice? No, I don’t have any.”

“Do you have any tomatoes? Yes, I have some.”

“Do you have any apples? No, I don’t have any.”

Try some of our exercises to test your knowledge of countable and uncountable nouns. 

Watch this Mini English Lesson to learn more about the difference between countable and uncountable nouns. 

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