uncountable nouns

[Carmenn]

Hi everybody
Is it true that all the nouns below are uncountable :?: I mean they should because that's what i've learned in my lesson, but i still have some doubts owing to the fact i've never known that ''information'', for example, cannot be put at plural or...''luggage''

• bread, coffee, gold, paper, cloth, glass, oil, stone, wood

• earth, paradise, nature, the present, advice, death, help, information, news, beauty, experience, horror, knowledge, friendship, theory, literature

• baggage, damage, shopping, reading, luggage, parking, weather

 

[Barb_D]

bread, coffee, gold, paper, cloth, glass, oil, stone, wood

Papers can be plural if you refer to sheets of paper. He had papers all over his desk. If you talk about manufacturing paper, it's not countable. This factory makes dolls. That factory makes paper.

Likewise, coffee can be plural if you refer to "cups of coffee" like you would order in a restaurant. "We'll have two coffees please."

Stone? I don't understand why that one is in the group. Sitcks and stones are certainly plural.

earth, paradise, nature, the present, advice, death, help, information, news, beauty, experience, horror, knowledge, friendship, theory, literature

I do see a lot of learners use "advices," which is wrong.
However, "die a thousand deaths" is plural. Experience can be plural (These three experiences taught her a lot about herself.) Horrors can be plural if you refer to the things that causes your state of horror. The horrors of the Nazi concentration camps, for example. Friendship and theory both easily take plurals.

baggage, damage, shopping, reading, luggage, parking, weather
Damages is a specific legal term. If you want to make baggage or luggage plural, you have to say "bags" or "pieces of luggage."

 

[Carmenn]

Then...what should i learn?? :roll: Do they teach me wrong? :-|

 

[Casiopea]

Carmenn, what Barb_D is saying is that uncountable nouns can be plural when,

1. they are classified:
Ex: I love these kinds of breads.

2. they are quantified:
Ex: I would like two coffees (two cups of coffee), please.

3. the material is an object:
Ex: The two cloth I have are made of cloth.
Ex: There is wood in the woods (the forest).
Ex: These drinking glasses are made of glass.
Ex: The base of the table is made of stone; the table's top is covered in flat stones.

4. the noun is made into "more than one":
Ex: Legal language: informations
Ex: Academic language: readings e.g., for homework, please do the reading listed on your sheet.

By the way, these are count: experiences, horrors, friendships, theories.

Does that help?

 

[Casiopea]

Do they teach me wrong? :-|

Correction
Were they wrong?
Was I taught the wrong thing?

 

[Carmenn]

I see...thank you both and for correction too, Casiopea.