[Grammar] Is the word “clothes” a countable noun or an uncountable noun?

[timonline]

It seems ”clothes” cannot be preceded by a quantity such as “one clothes” or “two clothes”, so in regards to this it should be classified as uncountable noun. But I read in many places, clothes are used with plural form verbs such as “are” and when plural form verb is used it cannot be regarded as a uncountable noun because according to grammer (at least those what I know), uncountable noun is always followed by single form verbs such as "is".

The same question I want to ask about the collective noun “cattle”. "cattle" cannot be preceded by one or two, but is always followed by plural form verbs such as "are". And also "poultry".

And one more question: is noun always classified either as countable or uncountable? Is there a situation where, like in the collective nouns above, some nouns can’t be classified as neither of the two categories? Thanks!

 

[probus]

"Her clothes are beautiful." Uncountable.

"Cattle" is always uncountable. "Poultry", on the other hand, is a category like "meat". For example "Poultry is something that a chef should ...". Poultry exists only in the singular, never in the plural.

"And one more question: is noun always classified either as countable or uncountable?"

Nouns are almost always either countable or not. There are a very few exceptions. For example one can say "Oats are a nutritious food", and "Oats is the only cereal crop that can be grown north of 56 degrees north latitude."

 

[5jj]

Many uncountable nouns denote an uncountable mass, and take the singular form of the verb. Some, however, take the plural form of the verb.

Plural uncountable nouns include: arms (= weapons), cattle, clothes, goods, police, regards, thanks.