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grammar - Uncountable nouns


When is it possible to use an indefinite article before uncountable nouns? Only when they are defined in some way?



  • music, art, love, happiness

  • advice, information, news (It was a good advice/information/news)

  • furniture, luggage (an old furniture, a heavy luggage)

  • rice, sugar, butter, water (a/one rice on my plate)

  • electricity, gas, power (a dangerous gas)

  • money, currency



Answer



It depends on the noun. Some mass nouns are also count nouns. Take art, beauty and gas, for instance. You can say



The art of the native peoples was interesting.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Gas permeated the room.



or



He made lying into an art.
That cameo brooch was a real beauty.
The noble gases include helium, neon, argon, and xenon.



These differences rely on different senses of the word.


Some nouns use counters to turn them into count nouns.



three grains of rice (not "three rices")
a piece of toast



Some require units of measurement instead of counters.



200 kilowatts of electricity
a glass [or bucket, or liter, or cup, or cistern, etc.] of water



The point is, all this is part of learning vocabulary. There is no general rule covering all instances, and while you may find lists of count nouns and mass nouns, such lists will almost certainly be incomplete and even misleading in many cases.


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