## Counting uncountables!

Ways of counting uncountable nouns

So, there are some uncountable nouns. But what if I told you, YOU CAN COUNT UNCOUNTABLES. Insane, right? Let me explain;

food and drink

The food on the left page is 'countable' and can be plurals 'bun-buns' and 'hotdog-hotdogs'. The food on the right page 'uncountable' can't be plurals. You can't change 'rice', 'coffee' or 'meat' into plurals.

However, you can count them in some kind of way.

Examples:

Bread | a loaf of bread | two loafs of bread
Water | a bottle of water | two bottles of water
Coffee | a cup of coffee | two cups of coffee
Juice | a glass of juice | two glasses of juice
Meat | a kilo of meat | two kilos of meat
Sugar | an ounce of sugar | two ounces of sugar

Let's practice!

Counting uncountables is difficult because you have to learn them by heart (uit je hoofd). It’s about the way you count things. You can say you have some bread but if you want to tell someone exactly how much you might tell them you have two loaves of bread or three slices of bread.

Some common ways of counting uncountables:

- Bags may be used to count flour and sugar and things like that.

- Small amounts of liquid come in bottles.

- Sometimes drinks or meat come in cans.

- Cartons contain milk and juice.

- You can buy beer and wine by the case (a box of bottles).

- Use ‘head’ for lettuce, cabbage and cauliflower.

- Jam, and other sticky solids are kept in jars.

- Usually potatoes but also sand, cement and such things are transported in sacks.

- Ice cream comes in tubs.