How many, how much, count and noncount nouns. Let's make a cake. How many eggs do we need? How much flour do we need? How much salt do we need? How many cups of milk do we need? How much butter do we need? Look at these questions. They begin with how many, how much, how much, how many, and how much. When do we know, when do we use how many and when do we use how much? Well, to understand this, first, we have to look at count and noncount nouns. We use how many and how much with count and noncount nouns. How many eggs do we need? How many goes with eggs because eggs is a count noun. How much flour do we need? How much goes with flour because flour is a noncount noun. Let's look at the difference. These are count nouns. One egg, two eggs, one pepper, three peppers, one cookie, 20 cookies. These are called count nouns because we can count them. Two eggs, three peppers, 20 cookies. These are noncount nouns: water, sand, hair. Look at water. I can't count water, I can't say one water, how much is one water? I can put water in a bottle and count the bottle, one bottle of water, but I can't count water. Look at sand. There are too many little pieces here. I can't count sand, so sand is also a noncount noun. Hair is the same. Now, hair, I could count one hair or two hairs. But when I'm talking about her hair, there are too many hairs on her head to count. So hair is also a noncount noun. There are many noncount nouns. Here's some examples: ice, tea, butter, and cheese. We can only count them when we put them in a container or measure them like one piece of ice. Piece is countable, ice is not, but I can count one piece of ice. I can also count one cup of tea, or one pound of butter, or one slice of cheese. Back to our cake. How many eggs do we need? Three. One, two, three. How much flour do we need? Two. Two? Two what? I don't know what that means. We need to measure it. We say two cups of flour, and now, I can measure the flour and I can count it when it's in the cup. Two cups of flour. Let's see if you understand. You are going to see a noun. Think, is it a count noun or a noncount noun? Remember, if you can easily count it, 1, 2, 3, it's a count noun. But if you have to put it in a container or if you have to measure it to count it, then it's a noncount noun. Let's look. Sandwich. A sandwich is a count noun. Honey. Honey is noncount. Rice. Rice is also noncount. There are too many little pieces of rice for me to count them all. Carrots. Carrots is a count noun. Soup. Soup is noncount. Lemon. Lemon is count. Olives. I can count these olives, that's a count noun. Olive oil is noncount. Notice, a sandwich, carrots, a lemon, olives, all of the count nouns have an article or an s to show singular and plural, but none of the count nouns do. If I want to make these count nouns countable, I need to put them in a container or measure them. A jar of honey, a bowl of rice, a bowl of soup, a bottle of olive oil. Now, I can count them. Let's make questions with count and noncount nouns. We use how many with plural count nouns and we use how much with noncount nouns. Cups of tea. How many cups of tea do you drink? Coffee. How much coffee do you drink? Because here, coffee is not in a cup, so it's noncount. Slices of pizza. How many slices of pizza do you want? Snow. How much snow is there? Soccer. How much soccer do you watch? Soccer is noncount. Sports are noncount? Soccer games. How many soccer games do you watch? Because games is count. There are some tricky noncount nouns. One is money. Money is noncount, and this may sound strange because of course, we want to count money, but the word money is an idea. Dollar, dollar is different. Dollar is a count noun. I can count dollars, one dollar, two dollars. When you ask in a store, how much is it, you are asking how much because you are asking how much money is it. Here are some other noncount nouns: information, work, and homework. We never put an s on these nouns because they are noncount. How much information do you need? How much work do you have today? How much homework did the teacher give you? Use how many with plural count nouns like eggs, carrots, and dollars. Use how much for noncount nouns like rice, homework, and money.
