Skill 20 : Countable and Uncountable Nouns

In English, nouns are classified as countable or uncountable. For certain questions on the TOEFL test, it is necessarily to distinguish countable and uncountable nouns in order to use the correct modifiers with them.
As the same implies, countable nouns are nouns that can be counted. Countable nouns can come in quantities of one or two or a hundred etc. The noun look is countable because you can have one book or several books.
Uncountable nouns, on the other hand, are nouns that cannot be counted because they come in some indeterminate quantity or mass. A noun such as milk or happiness cannot be counted ; you cannot have one milk or two milks, and you cannot find one happiness or two happiness. Uncountable nouns are often liquid items such as water,oil or shampoo . Uncountable noun can also refer to abstract ideas such as security, friendship, or hope.

 It is important for you to recognize the difference between countable and uncountable nouns when you came across such keywords as much and many.

They have taken much trips recently.
There was not many water in the pool

In the first example, much is incorrect because trips is countable. This sentence should say much water.

The following chart list the key words that indicate to you whether a noun is countable or uncountable.

KEY WORDS FOR COUNTABLE AND UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS
For countable nouns	Many, number, few, fewer
For uncountable nouns	Much, amount, little, less