Advanced English Grammar,3rd Edition - U
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Advanced English Grammar

A Linguistic Approach, 3rd Edition

By Ilse Depraetere and Chad Langford

Uncountable Nouns

Nouns that do not fit into the basic singular ~ plural dichotomy are uncountable nouns: sugar, beer, isolation, advice, information. The notion of singular versus plural is irrelevant to uncountable nouns. By default, however, they are treated as singular nouns. When functioning as Subject, for example, an NP with an uncountable head noun combines with a singular verb: All my luggage was lost. (AEG Ch. 3)

 

Ungrammatical, see grammatical

 

Unit Noun, see unitizer

 

Unitizer

A unitizer (or unit noun) is a countable noun which can be used to form a complex NP with an uncountable noun, in essence rendering the uncountable noun countable: a bar (two bars) of soap, a blade (several blades) of grass. Piece is a common unitizer: a piece of furniture, a piece of advice, a piece of information. (AEG Ch. 3)