What do "count" and "noncount" mean?

 Question

Deanne in the United States asked, “What do [count] and [noncount] mean in front of the different definitions in the Merriam Webster Learner’s Dictionary?"

Answer

Introduction to count and noncount

The labels count and noncount are for nouns, and they tell you whether or not a noun can be counted. More importantly, they tell you whether a noun has both a singular and plural form and can be used with both singular and plural verbs.

For example, teacher and cell phone are both count nouns. They can be counted (one teacher, two teachers, etc.), and they have both singular and plural forms that are used with singular and plural verbs, as shown in these examples:

• My Chinese teacher gives us homework every night. (teacher gives = singular)  My other teachers give homework only once a week. (teachers give = plural)
• My cell phone has service. (cell phone has = singular)  But the other cell phones are not working here. (cell phones are = plural)

Noncount nouns, also called mass nouns, refer to things that cannot be counted and cannot be plural. Rain and information are noncount nouns. One cannot say “two rains” or “three informations,” or even “one information.” These nouns have no plural form, and are used only with singular verbs, as in these examples:

• The rain is still coming down heavily.
• The information wasn’t clear.

Count AND noncount

Keep in mind that some common nouns, like coffee and paper, can be either count or noncount, depending on the meaning they have in a particular context, as shown in these examples:

count:       I'll have two coffees please. (coffee = a cup of coffee)
noncount: I'll make some fresh coffee. (coffee = a dark brown liquid)

One more thing

A few common noncount nouns end in –s, such as physics and news. Don’t let this fool you. They are singular, not plural, and they take singular verbs:

• Physics is my favorite subject.
• The news was not good.