Words for what you eat: which take a plural and which never do
We need bread, rice and milk - We need three eggs and two onions
How to use this sheet
Every noun in this area belongs to one of two grammatical classes, and the class decides what may stand in front of it. Countable nouns name separate objects: they accept a number, the indefinite article and a plural ending, and a question about quantity uses the plural quantifier. Uncountable nouns name a substance or a category seen as one mass: they take no number, no indefinite article and no plural ending, and quantity is expressed with the mass quantifier or with a unit word joined by a preposition. A few nouns sit in both classes and change meaning as they cross.
| Word | Countable or uncountable | Note |
|---|---|---|
| bread | uncountable | No number in front and no plural ending; count it with a unit: a slice of bread, two loaves of bread. |
| rice | uncountable | The same pattern: some rice, a bowl of rice, how much rice, but never two rices. |
| milk | uncountable | Countable only as a served portion when ordering, where two milks means two glasses. |
| coffee, tea | both | Uncountable as the drink itself, countable as cups of it: three teas, please. |
| meat | uncountable | The named kinds behave the same way: some beef, a little pork, how much lamb. |
| chicken | both | Uncountable as meat on the plate, countable as the living bird: we keep six chickens. |
| fish | both | Uncountable as food; as creatures the plural is usually fish, and fishes means species. |
| fruit | uncountable | Normally a mass: some fruit, a piece of fruit. The plural means kinds of it and sounds technical. |
| vegetable | countable | Countable, and usually plural when you talk about a meal: eat your vegetables. |
| egg | countable | A separate object: an egg, two eggs. Once beaten it turns uncountable: some egg on your shirt. |
| cheese | both | Uncountable as the substance, countable when you mean varieties: a shop selling forty cheeses. |
| food | uncountable | A mass noun; the plural appears only when classifying types: frozen foods, spicy foods. |
| meal | countable | A meal, three meals a day. But the daily ones take no article: before lunch, after dinner. |
In use
There is some bread on the table, and there are two eggs in the pan. How much rice do you want, and how many potatoes shall I cook? We ordered three coffees after dinner and shared a plate of cheese.
Watch out
I ate two breads and some rices for the lunch.
Two separate mistakes are at work in the incorrect sentence. The first two nouns name substances rather than objects, so English treats each as a single mass: no number may stand in front of them and no plural ending may be added, and a quantity has to be supplied by a unit word with a linking preposition. Learners add the ending because their own language counts these things happily. The second mistake is the article in front of the last noun. The three daily events are used bare when you mean the event itself, and the definite article appears only when you are pointing at one particular occasion both speakers already have in mind.