2.1 General, countable and uncountable

In general the use of nouns in English is similar to Catalan. There are:

• Proper nouns: Margaret, Smith, London, the United States of America.
• Countable nouns: book, girl, idea.
• Uncountable nouns: air, oxygen, time.

Countable nouns have two forms, one for singular, one for plural, e.g.:

A book, some books; one girl, three girls; an idea, many ideas.

Obviously a singular subject has a singular verb and a plural subject has a plural verb, e.g.:

The girl sings well. (La noia canta bé.)

The girls sing well. (Les noies canten bé.)

Uncountable nouns have only one form, and when this is the subject, it takes a singular verb, e.g.:

Oil is lighter than water.

Words for concepts like team, group, orchestra, band, committee, government, etc., which consist of several people, as well as names of companies, can take a singular or a plural verb, e.g.:

The orchestra was (were) rehearsing. (L'orquestra assajava.)

IBM has (have) announced a revolutionary model. (IBM ha anunciat un model revolucionari.)

A few nouns cause problems because their form does not correspond to their grammatical status:

	For irregular plurals and the spelling of plurals, see Plurals of nouns. See also Expressions that go with countable and uncountable nouns.

As in Catalan, many nouns can be both countable and uncountable, e.g.:

Wine is stronger than beer. (El vi és més fort que la cervesa.)

Rioja produces some good wines. (A la Rioja es produeixen bons vins.)

This coffee comes from Brazil. (Aquest cafè és del Brasil.)

Two coffees, please. (Dos cafès, si us plau.)

She has dark hair. (Té els cabells foscos.)

There's a hair in my soup. (Hi ha un cabell a la meva sopa.)

Notice that some concepts are expressed by a countable word in one language and an uncountable word in the other:

With these words it is normal to use some and any, and other words that go with uncountable nouns, e.g.:

She gave me some good advice. (Em va donar un(s) bon(s) consell(s).)

I've got some news for you. (Tinc notícies per a tu.)

There isn't much news from Scotland. (No hi ha moltes notícies d'Escòcia.)

I don't have much money. (No tinc molts diners.)

	See also proper nouns, nouns that modify other nouns and possessive forms of nouns.