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Hello everybody
Q: What do I use with uncountable nouns (is or are) or both of them, like furniture?
 

bhaisahab

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Hello everybody
Q: What do I use with uncountable nouns (is or are) or both of them, like furniture?

"The furniture is new", not "are".
 

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bhaisahab

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Thank you very much, but not all of the uncountable word used with is, am l right?

If you give some examples, I'll tell you whether or not they are.
 

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Thank you very much, but not all of the uncountable word used with is, am l right?

I am not a teacher!

An uncountable noun always goes with singular verbs! But be aware that a Noun can be either uncountable or countable one, it depends on the actual context. Here is an example, let's take the word furniture and you want to describe different types of furniture, Vietnamese furniture, Japanese furniture, .. etc. You can say Vietnamese and Japanese furnitures differ from each other.

(If I am wrong please let me know, thanks.)
 

bhaisahab

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I am not a teacher!

An uncountable noun always goes with singular verbs! But be aware that a Noun can be either uncountable or countable one, it depends on the actual context. Here is an example, let's take the word furniture and you want to describe different types of furniture, Vietnamese furniture, Japanese furniture, .. etc. You can say Vietnamese and Japanese furnitures differ from each other.

(If I am wrong please let me know, thanks.)

"Furniture" is always uncountable, so your example is not correct, it should be "...Vietnamese and Japanese furniture..."
 

calypsovoice

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Hey, I'm not a teacher, but here's what I know.
All of the examples are uncountable:

{rice, bread, advice, knowledge, news, information, hair, money, marketing, luggage, flu, cancer, maths, economics, athletics, genetics, linguistics;-), politics, mechanics, aerobics, rabies}
+
is


The same rule works with uncountable use of: society, lunch, work, life, trust, evil or time (can be used as countable though - but that's a different story).
 

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Thank you very much
 

Barb_D

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What about police or cattle?

The cattle is grazing in the field? I'd use are.

The police are following up leads.
 

bhaisahab

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What about police or cattle?

The cattle is grazing in the field? I'd use are.

The police are following up leads.

Yes, so would I.
 
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