英语中名词的可数与否到底如何辨别？
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我们都知道英语中的名词可以分为可数名词和不可数名词，但是我们很难分辨到底哪些名词是可数或不可数的，也很难分辨哪些不可数名词也可以用作可数名词。
为此，我们来看看Liz Walter是如何解释的。
Many dictionaries for learners of English show whether nouns are ‘countable’ or ‘uncountable’, often using the abbreviations C and U. Countable nouns are things that you can count – one dog, two dogs, twenty dogs, etc. Uncountable nouns are things that you cannot count – water, sadness, plastic, etc.
很多英语词典对名词是否可数进行了标注，一般用C（countable）代表可数名词（如dog），U（uncountable）代表不可数名词（如plastic）。
1）It is important to know whether a noun is countable or uncountable, otherwise you are likely to make basic grammar mistakes. For example, countable nouns can have indefinite articles and can form plurals, but uncountable nouns cannot （可数名词可以被不定冠词修饰，可以有复数形式，但不可数名词不行）:
正确：You should bring a coat. (coat是可数名词)
正确：I have three winter coats.
错误：The teacher gave us a homework. (homework是不可数名词，不定冠词a要去掉)
错误：We have lots of homeworks. （homeworks要改为homework）
2）If you have countable and uncountable nouns in your own language, you need to be very careful because they may not be the same ones. If I had £1 for every time one of my students has said or written ‘an advice’ or ‘some informations’, I would be very rich by now! In English, advice and information are both uncountable nouns, so they cannot have ‘an’ in front of them and they cannot be made plural.
有些名词只能用作不可数名词，比如advice和information。所以，我们不能说an advice或many informations，而只能说a piece of advice或much information。
3）Other common uncountable words that often cause problems are: equipment, furniture, transport, knowledge, countryside, traffic, research, progress, evidence, machinery.
以上这些粗体标示出来的单词都是不可数的，所以没有复数。
4）You also need to know whether a noun is countable or uncountable in order to decide whether to say much or many. ‘Many’ is used with plural countable nouns and ‘much’ with uncountable nouns（当我们在使用many或much时，就要注意识别它们所修饰的名词是否可数）:
正确：How many brothers and sisters do you have?
错误：How much brothers and sisters do you have?
正确：How much money do you have?
错误：How many moneys do you have?
5）Some and any are used with plural countable nouns and uncountable nouns, but not with singular countable nouns（some和any只能用来修饰可数名词复数或不可数名词，不能用来修饰单数可数名词）:
正确：We don’t have any eggs/sugar.
正确：Would you like some mushrooms/cheese?
错误：Do you have any coat?（coat要改为coats）
6）Sometimes we may want to make an uncountable noun more like a singular countable one. We do this by using a quantity expression before it（不可数名词的数量，常通过表量的名词来表达，即：a+表量的名词+of；其复数是通过表量的名词来体现的）:
错误：She gave us an advice/information.
正确：She gave us a piece of advice/information.
错误：We bought a few furnitures/clothings.
正确：We bought a few items of furniture/clothing.
7）Finally, some uncountable nouns end in ‘s’. They include activities such asaerobics, athletics, gymnastics and darts; academic subjects such aseconomics, linguistics, politics and physics and illnesses such as measles, mumps, rabies and diabetes. These nouns look like countable plurals, but they are uncountable and therefore need a singular verb（一些表运动项目的名词、表学科的名词和表疾病的名词常以s结尾，但都是不可数名词，要视作单数）:
Linguistics is a very interesting subject.
Aerobics makes you fit.
You will probably notice that some words in the dictionary are labelled both C and U. In my next post, I’ll look at some of these words and explain how nouns can be both countable and uncountable.
英语中还有些名词既是可数的，又是不可数的，我们将在后面继续探讨。
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