My learners always say "informations" - how can I help them with uncountable nouns?
The basics
Uncountable nouns (also called non-count nouns) refer to things which, in English at least, are considered as a group or concept and cannot be counted individually. They don’t have a plural form, and they’re used with a singular verb form. They are a common source of errors for learners of English at all levels.
The causes of the problem
The uncountable nouns that cause the most problems for learners are words for concepts that can be countable in other languages. For example, although information is uncountable in English, it can have a plural form in many other languages and indeed, in some languages the word even looks very similar, it’s a cognate. So, in Portuguese it’s possible to use the plural noun informações, in French, informations, in Polish, informacje, etc.
At higher levels, issues persist for a number of reasons. Firstly, as learners start to talk about more sophisticated concepts, they tend to use more abstract nouns (knowledge, evidence, progress, proof, etc.). They also combine those uncountable nouns into longer noun phrases – basic knowledge about other cultures, no evidence of criminal activity, great progress in science and medicine – which creates layers of challenge and makes it harder to focus on the key noun. Here is a list of the ten most problematic uncountable nouns. Do your students have trouble with these?
How can you help?
It’s hard to give general guidelines for this group of words, so they need to be tackled individually as and when they come up. Of course, we can correct errors when they occur, either in class or in written feedback, but this doesn’t tend to stick because it doesn’t involve much effort or mental processing by the learner. It goes in one ear and out the other!
When uncountable noun issues crop up in class, instead of giving a quick correction, look the word up in the dictionary. You could do this on screen at the front of the class, or if learners have their own devices, send them to dictionary.cambridge.org to search individually or in pairs. Once they’re at the entry, get them to pick out the following features:
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Uncountable nouns have a [U] label. This is really helpful for learners to recognize because it enables them to check new, unfamiliar words for themselves and see how they’re used. This helps them to become more autonomous learners in the future.
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These show typical patterns of usage, including the features found with uncountable nouns. Get learners to find answers to these questions using the examples:
Are there any plurals? (No!)
Which words (articles and determiners) come before the noun? (some, any, much or no article)
Notice you can click on More examples
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Many uncountable nouns in this group can be ‘counted’ by adding a phrase: a bit/piece of information, form/means of transport, etc. These phrases are usually shown in bold in the examples.
information
1️⃣ noun [ U ]
UK 🔊 /ˌɪn.fəˈmeɪ.ʃən/ US 🔊 /ˌɪn.fɚˈmeɪ.ʃən/
(informal info)
facts about a situation, person, event, etc.:
2️⃣ • information about/on Do you have any information about/on train times?
3️⃣ • bit/piece of information I read an interesting bit/piece of information in the newspaper.
• for further information For further information (= if you want to know more), please contact your local library.
• [+ that] We have reliable information that a strike is planned next month.
2️⃣ — Fewer examples
- Please contact our agent in Spain for further information.
- I went to several libraries to gather information about the scheme.
Extension activity
Use a problem uncountable as a springboard to check some other uncountable nouns and highlight the [U] labels. Here are some suggested look-ups for different levels:
| A1/A2 | music, furniture, homework, work, shopping, advice, traffic |
| B1/B2 | equipment, transport (UK) / transportation (US), training, damage, knowledge*, research, software, waste* |
| C1/C2 | evidence, feedback, congestion, potential, funding, merchandise, documentation |
*these words are marked [S or U], meaning they can be used in the singular with a, for example, a waste of sth. They cannot be used in the plural.
At higher levels, give learners a mix of countable and uncountable nouns to look up and put into two groups. You could choose pairs of (near) synonyms: information/fact, advice/suggestion, research/study, software/app, equipment/device, training/course.
⚠️ Be careful not to overload learners with too many words here (especially at lower levels) as that can just become confusing and counterproductive!
Extension activity
Click the button below to explore more “piece words”.
Why it works
The effort, analysis, discussion, and mental processing involved in searching for and explaining the information in the dictionary promotes deeper learning and makes learners more likely to remember that a particular word is uncountable. Looking at and analysing plenty of example sentences also reinforces how uncountable nouns are used in context.