It is very likely that you have needed to learn the differences between words that are countable and those that are uncountable in English.
This is an essential skill to learn at the most basic levels.
Although many see this topic, it is very common to have doubts about some words, as it can be complicated at certain times.
One such word is people. Read on to learn the lesson!
Countable and uncountable nouns
Before we get down to work, we will do a little review about this type of nouns, in order to understand everything perfectly.
First of all, all countable nouns are those that can be counted, that is, those that refer to elements that can be clearly separated into units.
By means of an example we can see it much more clearly, let’s take as a reference the noun “dish”.
This noun can be counted, that is, we can say one plate, two plates, three plates and so on indefinitely. On the other hand, uncountable nouns are those that cannot be separated into units.
Let’s see this again by means of an example through the noun “water”, when we talk about water we do not count it, since we do not say: one water, two waters, etc.
In any case, the most we can do to count is to use other nouns such as “bottle” or “cup”.
However, we must be careful, since in Spanish it is very common that in English we count uncountable nouns.
This happens because we omit the main noun, as often happens in cases such as “two coffees”, “three cokes”, “several macaroni”.
So how can I quickly identify whether a word is countable or not? The answer is simple: we count it.
Although it does not qualify as a very scientific method, putting the word in plural and seeing how it sounds is a very good way to find out if it is countable or uncountable.
However, we must pay special attention when we do this, since both in Spanish and English we can find words that are not countable but can be put in plural with a small change of meaning:
- I need some beer → I need some beer (uncountable)
- We are navigating troubled waters → We are navigating troubled waters with this (accountant).
- Water is a much-needed drink → Water is a much-needed drink (Incontable)
- Can I have two waters, please? → Can I have two waters, please?
(Accountant)
Is People a countable or uncountable word?
Now that the review is over and you have all the tricks to distinguish uncountable words from countable words, let’s go to the word that interests us in this article: people.
The main difficulty with this word is that we often associate the translation with “gente”, a word that is uncountable in Spanish.
However, we must keep in mind that people is also used as a plural form of person and not only as a translation of “gente”.
- There was only one person in the class → En clase solo había una persona
- At the concert there were a hundred or more people → At the concert there were a hundred or more people.
With this you have everything you need to never again forget whether people is countable or uncountable.
We hope you found this article useful. Thank you very much for reading it!