Учебное пособие: Консультации по английской грамматике В помощь учителю иностранного языка

them only in the plural

Certain kinds of nouns are usually countable.

1. Names of persons, animals, plants, insects, and the like, and their parts:

Persons Animals Plants Insects Parts

a boy a cat a cactus an ant an ankle

a girl a dog a bush a butterfly a bone

a man a horse a flower a caterpillar a face

a student a mouse an oak a fly a head

a teacher a tiger a potato a mite a nose

a wife a wolf a rose a tick an ear

a woman a zebra a tree a wasp a wing

2. Objects with a definite shape:

a ball a mountain

a building a street

a car a tent

a door a typewriter

a house an umbrella

3. Units of measurement (for length, area, weight, volume, temperature, pressure, speed and so on) and words of classification (often used as measurement and classification with uncountable nouns):

a basket a drop

a gram a degree

an inch a kind

a foot a type

a meter a piece

a pound a bit

a square foot, meter an item

a cubic inch, centimetre apart

4. Classifications in society:

a family a country a language

a clan a state a word