Is Homework An Uncountable Noun
Nelson Suggs
While I've seen the word homeworks used, I've never seen anything legitimate to indicate that it's correct. In any case, you can use the term homework assignments to refer to multiple homework items. That's a fairly common term, at least in American English.
However, the Merriam-Webster thesaurus (although not the Merriam-Webster dictionary) does have an entry for homeworks. Moreover, the plural form is used by at least some groups of educated native speakers.
One's best bet is to try to find out if one's audience belongs to a group that tends to use homeworks. If yes, then go ahead and use that word yourself. If not, rephrase as homework assignments or something similar.
Countable nouns refer to items that can be counted, even if the number might be extraordinarily high (like counting all the people in the world, for example). Countable nouns can be used with articles such as a/an and the or quantifiers such as a few and many. Look at the sentence below and pay particular attention to the countable noun:
Uncountable nouns, or mass nouns, are nouns that come in a state or quantity that is impossible to count; liquids are uncountable, as are things that act like liquids (sand, air). Abstract ideas like creativity or courage are also uncountable. Uncountable nouns are always considered to be singular, and can stand alone or be used with some, any, a little, and much. See the examples below for reference:
Some nouns can be both countable and uncountable, depending on the context of the sentence. Examples of these versatile nouns include light, hair, room, gear, art, and science. See the examples below:
In the first sentence, juice refers to the liquid beverage; thus, it is uncountable. In the second sentence, juice refers to the different varieties of juice (e.g., apple, grape, pineapple, etc.), and therefore, is considered a countable noun.
Consider the case when a teacher has thirty students in the class. The noun "homework" is uncountable so he cannot say "I have thirty homeworks to grade every week." My question is that if there is any unit of homework so that the sentence "I have thirty (units) of homework to grade every week" can be valid?
However, in my experience, it's more common to use the type of assignment instead of homework. I think the most broad term is assignment, but you could be more specific:
I have 30 ______ to grade every week.
I was very briefly a grader (or, "reader") in a related field. I can't remember exactly how I talked about it, but if someone asked me, "How much homework do you need to grade?", I would probably reply
I don't think I would have responded in the form you supplied, "I need to grade thirty (units) homework every week." But, that's just my personal feeling of it. You can still use pieces, as mentioned earlier. It may or may not sound slightly strange to the listener, but you will be understood.
The dictionaries don't seem to have caught up yet but, as somebody who regularly sets and marks homework in a university in the UK, I would quite happily refer to "marking 30 homeworks". A comment on another answer says that this is also used in the US.
So, at least for informal use, I think it's fine to use homework as a countable noun and pluralize it. If you wanted to be more formal, I'd go with my usual cowardly solution of rewording to avoid the problem: "I have to grade 30 students' homework" or "I have to grade homework for 30 students."
When is it acceptable to use "a homework?". As an ESL practitioner, I had to look it up, and found a source which says "a homework" is only acceptable among native speakers. So, should non-native speakers just stick to "homework" as uncountable?
Whereas it's foreseeable that some native English speaker could get away with saying, "I have a homework due in second period," to mean that they have a singular homework assignment due then, it isn't standard fare. Native speakers don't say it this way. In 22 years of schooling, from kindergarten through my PhD, I've never heard anyone say it like that. Perhaps the reference is saying that a native speaker could get away with it, while a ESL student could not, which is probably true. Rest assured that "homework" remains an uncountable noun.
The best reason I can think of why it sounds strange is because the word is indefinite in size. Saying "a" homework contradicts its nature of being indefinite by assigning a size to something that is arbitrary. For example, you can say that I have seven "assignments", but I cannot say that I have seven "homeworks".
Noncount nouns often refer to groups of similar objects. Furniture, for example, is a noncount noun. Furniture is a collection of similar countable items like chairs, sofas, tables, shelves, beds and so on.
Luggage is also a noncount noun. You can count bags, packages, and backpacks, but you cannot count luggage. Other noncount nouns that refer to groups of similar things include equipment, food, garbage, mail, money and vocabulary.
A recipe for cookies might call for 2 cups of sugar, a half-pound of butter, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla." Pound, cup and teaspoon are examples of measure words that you can use to make noncount nouns countable.
One of the most useful of these measure words is piece. You cannot count information but you can count a piece of information. Piece is a very useful word because it can be used with both count and noncount nouns. For example, you can have two pieces of pie or three pieces of information. Listen to this song by Paul Young.
Traffic might seem like a count noun. After all, it refers to a lot of cars. But traffic is a noncount noun in English. Vocabulary, hardware, information, music, and advice are noncount nouns that English learners often confuse for count nouns.
Count and noncount nouns vary from language to language. In some languages, there are no count nouns (e.g., Japanese). In addition, some nouns that are noncount in English may be countable in other languages (e.g., hair or information).
Important: Singular count nouns must have a word in the determiner slot. This could be an article, a pronoun, or a possessive noun (i.e., "a," "an," "the," "this," or a possessive noun). Please see our page on article usage for more information.
Noncount (or uncountable) nouns exist as masses or abstract quantities that cannot be counted. They have no plural form. Although most English nouns are count nouns, noncount nouns frequently occur in academic writing.
Important: Noncount nouns do not use the indefinite articles "a" or "an." They can, however, use the definite article "the" if what is being referred to is specific. They can also use no article if what is being referred to is general (generic) or nonspecific. Please see our page on article usage for more information.
Some nouns can be both count and noncount. When they change from a count to a noncount noun, the meaning changes slightly. In the noncount form, the noun refers to the whole idea or quantity. In the count form, the noun refers to a specific example or type. When the noun is countable, it can be used with the indefinite article "a" or "an" or it can be made plural.
Check the published literature in your field of study to determine whether specific nouns are used in a countable or an uncountable way. Sometimes, a noun that is generally countable becomes uncountable when used in a technical way.
Quantity words are used to add information about the number or amount of the noun. Some quantity words can only be used with countable singular nouns (e.g., computer, pen, and crayon), some can only be used with countable plural nouns (e.g., printers, flashdrives, and keyboards), some can only be used with uncountable nouns (i.e., paper, ink), and some can be used with both plural countable nouns and with uncountable nouns.
For instance, we can divide nouns into proper nouns and common nouns. Another way that we can classify nouns is by whether or not they are countable or uncountable, and that's the topic of this exciting lesson!
If you're a native English speaker, you most likely absorbed this lesson when you were a child, without anyone pointing it out to you. In fact, you can probably figure out yourself which nouns are countable and which are uncountable just by adding an -s to the end of the word and testing to see if it "sounds right."
However, other determiners can only be used with countable nouns and some can only be used with uncountable nouns. For example, the word a can be used with singular countable nouns, but it can't be used with uncountable nouns.
Some nouns can function as countable or uncountable. They are usually treated as countable when you're referring to varieties of the thing. For instance, cheese is usually an uncountable noun, but you can use it as a countable noun if you are referring to varieties of cheese.
I don't know about you, but I think it's pretty easy to come up with countable nouns. Uncountable nouns, however, are a bit harder to generate. Because of that, I thought I'd provide you with a little list of uncountable nouns just to get your wheels turning. :)
Hello,
I am a bit confused about the word "vocabulary".
Is it used as countable or uncountable noun?
If I refer to words, to the process of learning new words, should I use "vocabulary" or "vocabularies"?
E.g.
"Reading is one of the best ways to improve new vocabulary"
Is it right as countable or uncountable noun?
Thanks for help.
'vocabulary' can be either countable or uncountable, but in the context you're asking about (meaning 1 on the linked page), it's generally uncountable. Reading is good for 'expanding your vocabulary', 'improving your vocabulary' or 'learning new vocabulary' (but not 'improve new vocabulary').
For some reason, it was important for people to have a word to talk about the whole group of chairs, tables and other similar items as a general concept, without considering them as individual things - and that word is "furniture", the uncountable noun. Similarly, for "plant" (countable), for some reason it was important for people to talk about them as individual units, rather than as a general amount.
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