Comment dénombrer les noms indénombrables ?

Bien qu’ils désignent une quantité indénombrable, il est possible de dénombrer les
noms indénombrables en utilisant une unité de mesure avant le nom (par exemple : a
bottle/grain/glass/loaf/piece/kilo/gram of…). C’est cette unité que l’on va dénombrer, et
non le nom lui-même.
Noms indénombrables
Unité Exemple
(exemples)
Can I have a glass of milk and 2 glasses
a glass of milk/water/juice
of water, please?
a cup of tea/coffee I can’t drink more than 2 cups of coffee a day.
Molly eats 2 slices of bread for breakfast every
a slice of bread/cake/pizza
morning.
bread/paper/information/ Laura forgot to tell them an important piece
a piece of advice/chewing gum/equipment of information.
furniture/luggage/news Nathan stood on a piece of chewing gum.
a loaf of bread He went to the bakery to buy a loaf of bread.
a bottle of water/wine/beer There were 39 bottles of beer in the cellar.
a jar of honey/jam/peanut butter Paul bought 2 jars of honey.
A block of chocolate a day keeps the doctor
a block of chocolate/gold
away.
a can of cola/soft drink I remember when a can of cola cost $0.50!
a
We need half a kilo of chicken and 250 grams
gram/kilo chicken/flour/rice/butter
of rice.
of
a litre of milk/water/oil Michael drinks three litres of milk a week.
It’s impossible to count all the grains of sand
a grain of sand/salt/rice
on the beach.
a spoon of sugar A spoon of sugar helps the medicine go down.
a bowl of pasta/cereal/yogurt I had a bowl of pasta for lunch.

Noms à la fois dénombrables et indénombrables

Certains noms indénombrables peuvent avoir un fonctionnement et une forme

dénombrable, mais ils ont alors un sens différent. La forme dénombrable désigne une
chose en particulier tandis que la forme indénombrable se rapporte à une chose plus
abstraite et générale.
 Forme dénombrable (countable) Forme indénombrable (uncountable)
Exemple Signification Exemple
a paper paper Her necklace was made
The man is reading a paper.
un journal papier of paper. (et non : papers)
I have been to Ireland … times time Hurry up! we don’t have
three times. … fois temps much time.
hair
a hair Michael died his hair blue.
I’ve got a hair in my mouth. les
un cheveu (et non : hairs)
cheveux
a business
She has a business in South business
une Let’s get down to business.
Africa. les affaires
entreprise
country
How many countries are in the a country
la I grew up in the country.
European Union? un pays
campagne
a work work
I like this work by Turner. They don’t want to go to work.
une œuvre le travail