On a chilly winter evening in New Delhi, I saw this sign blazing in the dark. ‘Fruit’ is an uncountable noun. And if the owner wished to be grammatically correct, the sign should have read “Shakti Fruit.’
But what are uncountable nouns?
Uncountable nouns are nouns that cannot be counted.
They can be either abstract nouns (love, peace) or concrete nouns (sugar, furniture).
Here are the main points you need to keep in mind:
a. With an uncountable noun, we do not use an ‘s’. And so, we cannot have ‘fruits’.
b. We cannot use indefinite articles (a,an) with uncountable nouns.
We should not say: a fruit.
Let’s look at some common errors made with uncountable nouns:
- “Can I ask for an advice?”
This is incorrect. Advice is uncountable.
You should say: “Can I ask for some advice?”
2. The ten equipments are in the storeroom.
Equipment is uncountable.
Instead, we say: The ten pieces of equipment are in the storeroom.
3. She knows a lot about Japanese business etiquettes.
You guessed it… Etiquette is an uncountable noun.
The sentence should read: She knows a lot about Japanese business etiquette.
And now, I’m sure that you can identify the grammatical error in this photo:
For more on Indian common errors, check out my book.
Watch this video for more on uncountable nouns.
amalfabian 
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