IELTS Writing: A Word List Of The Most Commonly Used Uncountable Nouns

Recently, a previous student of mine who's gonna take the IELTS test a month from now asked for help regarding uncountable nouns. He found out that it affects his subject-verb agreement, and because of that, he usually gets a lower mark in his Grammatical Range and Accuracy in addition to his inability to finish the task, which affects his marks in Task Achievement. Uncountable nouns in English is just too many and if you look them up one by one, it's  going to be very overwhelming. You can't exactly learn all of it, and that's why I'm going to share to you a list of the most commonly used uncountable nouns in IELTS writing along with the most fundamental rules related to it.

What is an uncountable noun?

As its name suggests, uncountable nouns are nouns which can't be counted. This also means that they are considered singular in form and takes a plural form of verb. For example, the word water. The word water is uncountable, it can never have a plural 's', and we can never say one water, and two waters. It can never be quantified by any number. However, if you refer to an uncountable noun, say for example water, as specific, then you can use the articles 'the', 'a', and 'an' in front of it.

Water is considered the universal solvent by many scientists. (water expressed generally)

The water back in the hotel tastes unclean. (water expressed specifically)

(note: There's an exception to this rule of course, as when you refer to a large body of water, especially an ocean that is near or belongs to a particular country, or place. For example, it's correct to say, "The ship drifted into Turkish territorial waters".)

What types of uncountable nouns are there?

Most uncountable nouns relate to:

• liquids (water, milk)
• abstract ideas (love, advice, hate)
• powder and grain (sand, rice)
• mass nouns (hair, furniture)
• natural phenomena (sunshine, rain)
• states of being (sleep, stress)
• feelings/emotions (anger, happiness)
• gas (oxygen, smoke)
  

What are the basic grammar rules applicable to uncountable nouns?

• Use "how much" for uncountable nouns, and use "how many" for countable nouns.

Example: a. There's so much hate on the internet.     b.How much sugar do you want me to put in your tea?

• Use "this" for uncountable nouns, and use "these" for countable nouns.

Example: This rice really smells good.

• Use the quantifiers a little, a little bit of, a great deal of, and a large amount of ONLY with uncountable nouns.

Example: I always put a little salt in my soup.

• Use the quantifiers a few, a number of, several, a great number of and a large number of ONLY with countable nouns.

Example: He's been keeping several apples in the fridge ever since.

• Use the quantifiers no, none, not any, some, any, a lot of, lots of and plenty of with ALL types of nouns. 
• Use other words when expressing an amount of an uncountable noun.

Examples: 

some information---a piece of information

some clothing---one item of clothing/two items of clothing
some equipment---a piece of equipment/two pieces of equipment
some water---a cup of water/two glasses of water.

Uncountable Noun List

Below are the most commonly used uncountable nouns in IELTS writing. Words in bold are both regarded as countable and uncountable nouns.

Irregular Uncountable Nouns

Some nouns can be both countable and uncountable, and these are called irregular uncountable nouns.

Examples:

Hair can be countable and uncountable depending on how you use it.

• There is a hair in my soup. (Countable.This refers to only one strand of hair and is countable)
• He has a  lot of hair. (Uncountable. This refers to the mass of hair and is considered uncountable)

Business can be countable and countable depending on how you use it.

• He studies business at school. (Uncountable. This refers to a university major)
• My family owns several businesses in the US and Japan. (Countable. This refers to many kinds of business (source of income) someone owns) 

Irregular uncountable nouns cannot be learned in just one sitting. It involves a whole lot of dedication and continuous learning. I just have given you a starting point on how you're going to study it, and if you want more details about irregular uncountable nouns, just follow the link.

That's basically it! We have covered the fundamental rules regarding uncountable nouns. There are exceptions, and more advanced rules, but learning the basics pretty much makes up 70% of what you need to be able to write essays without spending too much time checking your subject-verb agreement when using uncountable nouns.