Editing Noun (section)

=== Countable nouns and mass nouns ===
{{Main|Count noun|Mass noun}}

''Count nouns'' or ''countable nouns'' are common nouns that can take a [[plural]], can combine with [[numeral system|numerals]] or counting [[Quantifiers (linguistics)|quantifiers]] (e.g., ''one'', ''two'', ''several'', ''every'', ''most''), and can take an indefinite article such as ''a'' or ''an'' (in languages that have such articles). Examples of count nouns are ''chair'', ''nose'', and ''occasion''.

''Mass nouns'' or ''uncountable'' (''non-count'') ''nouns'' differ from count nouns in precisely that respect: they cannot take plurals or combine with number words or the above type of quantifiers. For example, the forms ''a furniture'' and ''three furnitures'' are not used – even though ''pieces'' of furniture can be counted. The distinction between mass and count nouns does not primarily concern their corresponding referents but more how the nouns ''present'' those entities.<ref>[[Manfred Krifka|Krifka, Manfred]]. 1989. "Nominal Reference, Temporal Constitution and Quantification in Event Semantics". In R. Bartsch, J. van Benthem, P. von Emde Boas (eds.), Semantics and Contextual Expression, Dordrecht: Foris Publication.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Borer|2005}}</ref>

Many nouns have both countable and uncountable uses; for example, ''soda'' is countable in "give me three sodas", but uncountable in "he likes soda".