2.1 General, countable and uncountable

In general the use of nouns in English is similar to Spanish. 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 chica canta bien.)

The girls sing well. (Las chicas cantan bien.)

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. (La orquesta ensayaba.)

IBM has (have) announced a revolutionary model. (IBM ha anunciado un modelo revolucionario.)

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 Spanish, many nouns can be both countable and uncountable, e.g.:

Wine is stronger than beer. (El vino es más fuerte que la cerveza.)

Rioja produces some good wines. (En La Rioja se producen unos buenos vinos.)

This coffee comes from Brazil. (Este café es de Brasil.)

Two coffees, please. (Dos cafés, por favor.)

She has dark hair. (Tiene el pelo oscuro.)

There's a hair in my soup. (Hay un pelo en mi 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. (Me dio un (os) bueno (s) consejo (s).)

I've got some news for you. (Tengo noticias para ti.)

There isn't much news from Scotland. (No hay muchas noticias de Escocia.)

I don't have much money. (No tengo mucho dinero.)

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