With uncountable nouns, we use much and little. With countable nouns, we use many to talk about large quantities, and few to talk about small quantities. For example:įinally, we use different words to talk about quantities with countable and uncountable nouns.

You can’t say a rice, a money or a knowledge. Next, you can’t use a or an with an uncountable noun.

His knowledge of this subject has improved significantly.

Secondly, you need to use a singular verb with uncountable nouns. That means you can’t say moneys, rices or knowledges. They follow different rules.įirst, uncountable nouns can’t be plural. You’ll see more examples in the next section, but here are three: money, rice and knowledge are all uncountable nouns.Ĭountable and uncountable nouns behave differently. One water, two waters…? No, that doesn’t work. One pen, two pens, three pens, and so on. You can also get a free 30-day free trial to the Macquarie Dictionary and Thesaurus.Some nouns are countable. If there are any others we've missed, you can suggest a word or let us know.

The list below includes many common standard English terms, such as a pod of whales and a pack of dogs, as well as more arcane terms such as a clowder of cats and a descension of woodpeckers. Actual evidence of these 'proper' terms in genuine use is either sketchy or non-existent.

It may be noted that despite the existence of these collective nouns, ordinarily a group of plovers, starlings or owls will most likely be denoted, in both spoken and written English, by the term flock and not congregation, murmuration or parliament. In imitation of these medieval terms many new terms of a similar nature have been coined in recent times, such as a crash of rhinoceroses. Whether these terms were ever actually used by hunters is doubtful, but a few have in the end become a part of the standard English vocabulary, and scholars from the 19th century onwards have been diligent in reproducing these medieval lists, with greater and less accuracy, so that many of these terms are today still known as the 'proper' terms for a group of some stated animal or bird, even though their use outside this limited domain is virtually non-existent. A number of medieval sources provided lists of collective nouns for various animals and birds, purportedly as technical hunting terms, although clearly fanciful in origin.

What is collective noun