20 SKILL UP!
GRAMMAR CHECK- Key rules
Here are a few general rules:
Singular uncountable nouns
take a singular verb.
There are no plural forms of sin-
gular uncountable nouns.
You cannot use “a”/“an” or num-
bers in front of a singular un-
countable noun.
Some nouns can be both counta-
ble and uncountable, depending
on the context or meaning.
(^) There are different ways to make
a singular uncountable word
countable, which are often spe-
cific to the individual nouns.
Below, we focus on some nouns
you will find useful when talking
about marketing.
- “Advertising” and “marketing”
Both are singular uncountable
nouns, so they take a singular verb:
Is advertising a waste of money?
Online marketing is essential
today.
To refer to individual instances
of these abstract concepts, you
can combine them with “activity”,
which, of course, can also be used
in the plural:
Our advertising/marketing ac-
tivities focus on mobile phones.- “Content”, “equipment”,
“information” and “news”
These four words are also singular
uncountable nouns:
The content is entertaining.
What equipment is necessary?
This information is not enough.
The news wasn’t great.
These abstract nouns can be com-
bined with the countable noun
“piece” to refer to individual in-
stances of content, equipment,
information or news:
How many content pieces /
pieces of content will you need?
How long have you had this
piece of equipment?
That’s a key piece of informa-
tion/news.
Singular uncountable nouns
Knowledge of the basics of English grammar will help you to
communicate clearly and confidently. Here, we review singular
uncountable nouns in the context of digital marketing.