Language/French/Grammar/Mass-versus-count-nouns
What are count nouns?
Count nouns identify individual entities, and usually have both singular and plural forms.
What are mass nouns?
Mass nouns treat the entity or entities they refer to as a single unit, and typically have only a singular form (although some mass nouns only have a plural form):
tab
Mass nouns in French are usually accompanied by the partitive article - du, de V, de la or des - in those cases where English has 'some' or no article at all:
- Je voudrais du lait, s'il vous plaît
I would like some milk, please
- II y a du vin dans le placard
There's wine in the cupboard
“personnes” and “gens”
“personnes” and “gens”, both of which mean 'people', differ in their uses because personne is a count noun and gens a mass noun. Only personne can be preceded by a number (e.g. cinq), or the quantifiers plusieurs 'several', quelques 'a few', un certain nombre de 'a certain number of:
- Les cinq personnes (NOT *gens) qui ont mangé avec nous
The five people who ate with us
- Plusieurs personnes (NOT *gens) sont restées tout l'après-midi
Several people stayed for the whole afternoon
By the same token, gens is preferred in contexts where 'people' are treated as a mass:
- Les gens (NOT *personnes) n'aiment pas rester à table trop longtemps
People don't like to spend too long over a meal
NB: gens can be preceded by beaucoup de 'many', peu de 'few', tous les 'all the' and la plupart des 'most'.
Mass nouns used countably
Some mass nouns can be used countably to refer to specific examples of the substance in question: Tab2
Some count nouns can also be used as mass nouns:
Tab3