Language/French/Grammar/Mass-versus-count-nouns

Mass versus count nouns

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What are count nouns?

Definition

A count noun can be used with the indefinite article (e.g.: "un livre, des livres") and usually have both singular and plural forms.

Typical count nouns

French	Translation
une bouteille	a bottle
un chien	a dog
des bouteilles	bottles
une personne	a person
des chiens	dogs
des personnes	people

What's a Mass Noun?

Definition

A Mass Noun refer to something that cannot be counted (e.g. a substance: "de l'air" or quality: "de la sagesse") and typically has only a singular form (although some mass nouns only have a plural form):

Typical mass nouns

French	Translation
de l'air	air
de l'eau	water
du beurre	butter
des gens	people
du gâteau	cake
du sable	sand

Mass nouns in French usually go with the article "du", "de l'", "de la" or "des" - in cases where the English has "some" or no article:

• Je voudrais du pain

I would like some bread

• II y a du beurre dans le tiroir

There's butter in the drawer

“Les personnes” and “Les gens”

“Les personnes” and “Les 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:

"personnes" and "gens", which both mean "people", are used differently because "personne" is an count noun while people is a a mass noun. Only "personne" can be preceded by a number (for example "cinq"), or the quantifiers "quelques" (some), "un certain nombre de" (a number of), "plusieurs" (several):

• Les 6 personnes (NOT gens) qui sont venus nous voir

The 6 people who came to see us

• Plusieurs personnes (NOT gens) ont étaient sur la plage

Several people were on the beach

Likewise, "gens" is preferred in contexts where “people” are treated as a mass:

• Les gens (NOT personnes) n'aiment pas rester dans le froid trop longtemps

People don't like to stay in the cold for too long

Note: gens can be preceded by beaucoup de 'many', peu de 'few', tous les 'all the' and la plupart des 'most'. "gens" can be preceded by "beaucoup" (many), "peu de" (few), "la plupart des" (most) and "tous les" (all the).

Mass nouns used countably

Some mass nouns can be used countably to refer to specific examples of the substance in question:

French	Translation
les vins de France	the wines of Trance
les Eaux et Forêts	the Trench Torestry Commission
les fromages de Normandie	the cheeses of Normandy
un pain	a loaf of bread
un petit pain	a bun

Some count nouns can also be used as mass nouns:

French	Translation
Prenez du poulet	Have some chicken
Il met du citron dans tout	He puts lemon in everything

Types of Nouns (all lessons)

Table of Contents

• Abstract versus concrete nouns
• Mass versus count nouns
• Collective nouns
• Proper nouns
• Use of an an/année, jour/journée, matin/matinée, soir/soirée

Other Chapters

Table of Contents

Nouns

• Types
• Gender
• Plural

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Determiners

• Articles
• Typical use of the definite article
• Typical use of the indefinite article
• The partitive article: du, de l', de la, des
• Use of indefinite and partitive articles after the negative forms ne... pas, ne... jamais, ne... plus, ne... guère
• Omission of the article
• Demonstrative determiners
• Possessive determiners

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Personal and impersonal pronouns

• Subject pronouns
• Object pronouns
• Stressed pronouns
• Demonstrative pronouns
• Possessive pronouns

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Adjectives

• Adjectives modifying the noun
• Adjectives which follow verbs or verbal expressions
• Adjectives with complements
• Indefinite and negative noun phrases with adjective complements
• Adjectives used as nouns
• Adjectives used as adverbs
• Masculine and feminine forms of adjectives
• Plural forms of adjectives
• Adjective agreement with nouns
• Invariable adjectives
• Compound adjectives
• Comparative and superlative forms of adjectives
• Subjunctive versus indicative in clauses dependent on a superlative adjective
• Absolute use of the superlative

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Adverbs

• Function of adverbs
• Formation of adverbs with the ending -ment
• Adjectives used as adverbs without addition of -ment
• Phrases used as adverbs
• English and French adverb formation
• Types of adverbs
• Location of adverbs

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Numbers, measurements, time and quantifiers

• Cardinal numbers
• Ordinal numbers
• Fractions
• Some differences in the use of cardinal and ordinal numbers in French and English
• Measurements and comparisons
• Dates, days, years
• Clock time
• Money
• Quantifiers

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Verb forms

• Conjugations
• Easy ways of generating some parts of the paradigms
• Changes in the stem form of some -er conjugation verbs
• Verbs whose stems end in c- or g-
• Verb paradigms

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Verb constructions

• Relations between verbs and their complements
• Intransitive constructions
• Directly transitive verbs
• Indirectly transitive verbs
• Ditransitive verbs
• The passive
• Pronominal verbs
• Impersonal verbs
• Verbs which take noun + adjective or noun + noun complements

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Verb and participle agreement

• Subject-verb agreement
• Agreement of the past participle with the subject of être
• Agreement of the past participle of verbs conjugated with avoir with a preceding direct object
• Agreement of the past participle of pronominal verbs in compound tenses

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Tense

• The present
• The past
• The future
• Other tenses indicating the time at which events occur relative to other events
• Combining tenses
• Tenses in direct and reported descriptions of events
• Tenses with si

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The subjunctive, modal verbs, exclamatives and imperatives

• The attitude of the subject to events: the subjunctive
• The use of devoir, pouvoir, savoir, falloir
• The French equivalents of the English modal verbs: 'would', 'should', 'could', 'may', 'might', 'ought to', and 'must'
• Exclamatives
• Imperatives

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The infinitive

• Introduction: what are infinitives?
• Infinitives as complements to other verbs
• Verbs which take infinitive complements without a linking preposition
• Verbs which take infinitive complements preceded by the preposition à
• Verbs which take an infinitive complement preceded by de
• Omission of objects before infinitives
• Infinitives as complements to adjectives
• Infinitives as complements to nouns
• Infinitives in subordinate clauses
• Infinitives as polite commands
• Quick-reference index to verbs taking infinitive complements

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Prepositions

• Introduction
• Prepositions listed alphabetically from à to vers
• French translations for common English prepositions

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Question formation

• Introduction
• Yes/no questions
• Information questions
• Order of object pronouns in questions involving inversion
• Order of negative particles in questions involving inversion
• Use of question words and phrases: qui?, que?, quoi?, quel?, de qui?, avec combien de? etc.
• Indirect questions

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Relative clauses

• Introduction
• Use of relative qui
• Use of relative que
• Preposition plus qui
• Use of lequel in relative clauses
• Use of dont, de qui, duquel/de laquelle/desquels/desquelles
• The use of où as a relative pronoun
• Use of relative quoi
• Free relative clauses and the use of ce qui, ce que, ce dont, ce à quoi, ce sur quoi, etc.
• Translating 'whoever', 'whatever', 'wherever', 'whenever', 'however'
• Indicative and subjunctive in relative clauses

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Negation

• Introduction
• Location of sentence negators
• Order of negators in multiple negation
• Omission of ne in sentence negation
• Order of negative elements in questions and imperatives
• ne... pas
• ne... que
• ne... aucun(e), ne... nul(le)
• ne... jamais
• ne... plus
• ne... guère
• ne... rien
• ne... personne
• ne... ni... ni
• sans used with other negators
• ne used alone

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Conjunctions and other linking constructions

• Introduction
• Coordinating conjunctions
• Subordinating conjunctions
• Conjunctions sometimes confused by English speakers
• Repeated subordinating conjunctions
• Subordinating conjunctions used with infinitive clauses
• après avoir/ être + past participle linking an infinitive clause to a main clause
• Past participle phrases used as linkers
• Present participles and gerunds

Other Lessons

• Ordinal numbers as fractions
• Omission of the article in noun constructions linked by de
• Impersonal vs Personal
• Measurements and comparisons in French — Numeral nouns and approximations
• Imperative mood
• Use of stressed pronouns for emphasis
• Reflexive use of me, te, se, nous, vous
• How to tell the time
• Agreement of the past participle when using “avoir” with a preceding direct object
• How to use Have
• Adverbs ending in —ément derived from adjectives ending in —e
• Subject verb agreement
• Gender
• Nouns that are only masculine or only feminine But may refer to both men and women
• Position of object pronouns with faire, laisser, envoyer or verbs of perception + infinitive