Question

Is ‘people’ a countable or uncountable noun?

Answer 1

Hint: Noun is a naming word. It is a word that refers to any name, place, thing, feeling, animal or abstract idea. There are 7 main types of nouns are Common nouns, Proper nouns, Concrete nouns, Abstract nouns, Collective nouns, Count and mass nouns.

Complete answer:
Let us first understand what are countable and uncountable nouns -
Countable nouns – The nouns which can be counted are known as countable nouns. We can count these nouns using numbers and they can have both singulars as well as plural forms. The singular form will use a/an in the sentences while the plural form will have a count(number) of the noun. For e.g. a dog (singular form), 5 dogs (plural form).

Uncountable nouns- As the name suggests, these are the nouns that cannot be counted. These nouns are usually given in singular forms as they do not have any plural forms. These nouns can be found in the form of an abstract idea, a feeling or they may have such little quantity which cannot be counted. For e.g. hair, air, gas etc.

People is a countable noun. People is the plural form of a person. Since we can answer the question ‘How many people were present there?” with a number, therefore, we can say that it is a countable noun.

Therefore people is a countable noun.

Note: Countable nouns use quantifiers like many, few, a few, fewer, several whereas uncountable nouns can use quantifiers like much, little, a little bit of, some. ‘Lots of’ can be used with both countable and uncountable nouns.