Before you can form plurals correctly, you need to understand the difference between count and non-count nouns. Noncount nouns are a large group of “mass” or “collective” nouns that do not make a distinction between singular and plural forms. Even though these nouns may refer to large quantities of things, they act like singular nouns grammatically:

They can never take the plural ending “s”

They always take a singular verb.

They cannot be used with the indefinite article “a/an” (whose original meaning was “one”), and are frequently used with no article at all.

They are used with collective quantity words like “a lot of,” “some,” “any,” “much,” or “more,” instead of count words like “many,” “several,” “two,” or “few.”

The following categories of words frequently contain noncount nouns:

Abstractions: Beauty, revenge, knowledge, progress, poverty
Example: Ignorance causes poverty.

Liquids and gases: Water, beer, air, gasoline, milk
Example: Gas is cheaper than oil.
               Wine is my favorite beverage.

Materials: Gold, silver, wood, glass, sand.
Example: He had a will made of iron. Gold is more valuable than silver.

Categories of food: Rice, flour, cheese, salt, yogurt.
Example: Bread is the staff of life.
               Meat and cheese are sources of protein.

Languages: French, English, Korean. Example: Navajo is a complex language. Do you speak German?
BUT use “the French,” “the English” when referring to people of a given nationality:
Example: The French are great lovers of wine. (Note that this noun is plural.)

Academic fields: physics, astronomy, music.
Example: Philosophy is a difficult subject.
              My brother is majoring in biology.

Sports and games: tennis, golf, basketball.
Example: Do you play chess? Soccer is becoming more popular in America.

Weather: Fog, snow, wind.
Example: Severe drought can cause famine. The city of Buffalo gets more snow than most cities in New York State.

Natural phenomena: gravity, nuclear energy, magnetism.
Example: Electricity is a form of energy.   Newton discovered the principles of gravity.

Gerunds (verbal nouns): running, singing, smoking.
Example: Swimming is excellent exercise. Sleeping during class is not recommended.

Groups of things of varying size and shape: jewelry, garbage, luggage, equipment.
Example: Fine jewelry is expensive. Trash was thrown everywhere in the room.

If noncount nouns cannot take plural endings, how do you denote a specific number or quantity of noncount nouns?

Use count nouns such as “piece,” “ton,” “cup,” etc.:
“Two bottles of wine,” “Five pieces of equipment” (NEVER equipments!).
Note that these count nouns take a plural verb:
“Ten pieces of jewelry were stolen.”
(Other examples: “five research papers,” “several interesting pieces of information,” “six cans of beer,” “a pound of butter.”)

For general quantities, use general quantity words such as those listed on the previous page (e.g., more, much, a lot of, less, a large quantity of):

“We need to do more research (NEVER researches!)”
“A lot of valuable information is contained in this paper (NEVER informations!).” Note that the verb used with information is singular.

Use of the definite article “the” with noncount nouns:

As soon as you specify a noncount noun by attaching a defining phrase to it, you must use “the,” just as you would with any other noun. Note the difference between:

“Information is a valuable commodity.” vs
“The information that you gave me was valuable.”

When you are talking about a particular piece of information, as opposed to information in general, a definite article is needed. Note that even abstract nouns may be used in a specific way, as in:

“The beauty of the night was overwhelming.” or
“The poverty of the old man was tragic.”

Use of s with noncount nouns:

Certain noncount nouns, especially foods and liquids, may be used with a plural “s”—just like count nouns—when they refer to many different varieties (e.g. “many poisonous gases,” “various cheeses”). Note the difference:

“He drank too much wine.” vs
“The wines of France are famous.”

(For more information on definite and indefinite articles, see the handout “Definite and Indefinite Articles.”)

Count vs. Noncount Nouns