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When I was studying for my CELPIP exam I got material from them. Unfortunately, I can not put the PDF to the public because it has a watermark with my personal email. But I can put you here what it says.

CELPIP's ninth error as they state:

A common CELPIP error is mishandling countable and uncountable nouns. We can separate and enumerate countable nouns (one storm, two storms). We can’t do this with uncountable nouns, as they lack distinct boundaries (one weather, two weathers). Countable nouns can be pluralized with -s or -es (storms), but uncountable nouns can’t (weathers). Also, singular countable nouns can be preceded by the indefinite article a (a snowflake). Uncountable nouns can’t (a weather). With uncountable nouns, however, we sometimes use the or other determiners.

Uncountable nouns include groups composed of similar items (traffic), abstractions or ideas (happiness), recreational activities (golfing), diseases (diabetes), elements (magnesium), some foods (rice), gases (hydrogen), liquids (blood), metals (iron), natural phenomena (electricity), occupations (engineering), particles (sand), areas of study (psychology), and languages (English).

How to Use Expressions with Uncountable Nouns

Uncountable Nouns

Countable Units
collection of nouns clothing, furniture, jewellery, makeup, luggage
a pile/bunch of garbage, traffic, laundry, machinery, stuff
a career in accounting, nursing, medicine
a piece of advice, equipment, furniture, garbage, paper
an interest/degree in kinesiology, linguistics, philosophy
a cup of coffee, juice, tea, milk
a slice/piece of bread, cheese
a game/round of soccer, tennis, bridge, poker, chess
a sum of money, currency
a member of our staff
a tank/supply of gasoline, diesel, water
a case of bronchitis, influenza, pneumonia, malaria

Beware

Some nouns can be uncountable or countable, depending on their meaning

  • We're out of coffee
  • I'm going to grab a coffee at Tim's

Good luck!

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