My Uncountable Noun Mistakes - Kesalahan Penggunaan Uncountable Noun

What is uncountable noun?
Hm, I think most of us already know about this term. An uncountable noun is a noun which has no plural form and ain't a singular noun.

So, because uncountable nouns have no singular or plural form, they can't be used with a, an, many, few, several, etc.

For example:
Furniture, music, health, happiness are uncountable nouns. So we can't say, "I got many happiness today!" Yeah, that was wrong.

And to be honest with you guys, I do some mistakes with this issue. These words below are countable nouns that I most often use wrongly as if they were countable nouns.

1. advice
2. equipment
3. information
4. training
5. transport
6. software

So, can we make them countable?

Nice question, isn't it?

Yes, we can. Of course we absolutely can make them countable by adding a phrase such as 'a piece of' or 'item of' before them.

You know lah, I often write, "I got an advice from my parents."

Yes, that was wrong. The correct sentence should be like this, "I got a piece of advice from my parents."

But we have to be careful since not every word can be used with 'a piece of', like I can't use 'a piece of transport', that doesn't make sense. For this word, we can use 'a method of transport'.

And I know you guys often (even always) use the word SOFTWARE as countable noun. I'm sure many people still use these kinds of sentences:
"I have a software to edit your bad photograph." -wrong
"You've bundled so many softwares into one disk." -wrong
"Yeah, he has successfully downloaded few software to help his work." -wrong
Note: to talk about an amount of software, don't say softwares  (with -s), say just software, some software, or a lot of software.


So, I hope I can remember to use them correctly. How about you? What uncountable nouns do you often use wrongly as if they were countable nouns? Share with me via the comments.
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Beneran, buat kita yang belum terbiasa dengan Bahasa Inggris, masalah simple kayak uncountable noun ini kadang bikin pusing juga.

Apa sih uncountable noun itu?
Sesuai dengan namanya uncountable noun adalah kata benda yang tidak dapat dihitung. Itu sih definisi bebas saya. Dalam Bahasa Inggris, kata benda memang dibagi dua, benda yang bisa dihitung (bisa dicacah-countable) dan yang tidak bisa dihitung.

Nah, karena uncountable noun tidak bisa dihitung atau dicacah, maka tidak bisa digunaan bersama article a yang artinya sebuah, juga tidak bisa digunakan bersama many, several dan few karena mereka hanya bisa digunakan untuk countable noun (yang bisa dihitung) saja.

Contoh kata benda yang termasuk dalam uncountable noun adalah, happiness (kebahagiaan), sadness (kesedihan) dan health (kesehatan).

Berikut ini adalah kata benda yang sering banget saya gunakan dengan keliru karena menganggapnya sebagai countable nouns. Yah, mungkin kamu juga terkadang melakukannya. Hehehe...

• advice
• equipment
• information
• training
• transport
• software

Advice yang bisa diartikan sebagai saran atau masukan atau nasihat termasuk yang paling sering saya gunakan dengan salah kaprah. Yah, ini karena dalam bahasa Indonesia kita sering sekali menggunakan istilah 'sebuah nasihat', 'banyak saran', 'sedikit masukan' yang langsung ditranslate menggunakan an advice, many advices, atau few advice. Padahal format itu keliru ternyata. 

Lantas, bagaimana kalau kita ingin mengatakan 'sebuah saran'. Di dalam bahasa Inggris kita mengenal frase tambahan untuk membuat uncountable noun menjadi countable. frase tersebut adalah 'item of'. 

'item of' ini banyak macamnya dan penggunaannya disesuaikan dengan kata yang mengikutinya. Ada a piece of, a glass of, a bucket of, a method of, atau yang lainnya. Dan untuk banyak kata benda abstrak yang termasuk dalam uncountable noun, kita menggunakan a piece of. 

Untuk kasus ini, kita bisa bilang, a piece of advice. Terasa panjang? Memang. Tapi maknanya tetap sama dengan sebuah nasihat. Dan karena advice ini tidak memiliki bentuk jamak (plural), maka kalau bilang banyak nasihat tidak perlu menambahkan huruf -s di belakangnya. Kita bilang saja 'some advice' atau 'a lot of advice' atau 'a little advice'.

Untuk kata transport, kita menggunakan a method of transport agar membuatnya menjadi countable noun.

Well, dari semua kata yang sering saya gunakan dengan keliru. Saya yakin baik saya maupun beberapa di antara kamu seringkali menggunakan istilah software sebagai countable noun. Padahal ternyata bukan.

Saya sering banget menulis, "I've got a software to create vector images." Harusnya yang benar adalah, "I've got a piece of software to create vector images," atau, "I've got a kind of software to create vector images."

Yah, mudah-mudahan setelah ini saya jadi lebih hati-hati menggunakan uncountable noun, dan bisa lebih jago lagi dalam berbahasa Inggris.

Bagaimana dengan kamu?
Apakah kamu juga punya beberapa kata benda (uncountable nouns) yang kadang suka lupa dianggap sebagai countable nouns? Share cerita kamu via komentar ya.

P.S.
Baca juga ya artikel saya tentang:
- Type of Nouns
- 'by' and 'near' 
- Infinitive -after interrogative conjunction. 

P.S. [again]
Kalau kamu menemukan kesalahan-kesalahan dalam pengetikan, silakan dikomentari biar bisa saya revisi.

P.S. [again and again]
We can be friends on facebook or twitter, so visit my profile : Nouvel Raka or @noboru26.

INFINITIVE - after interrogative conjunction

The picture is credited to http://oanilicious.deviantart.com/art/Studying-169053494

Hmm... quite late to post this, but I have to do it now though it's too late...

Today's lesson is about infinitive after interrogative conjunction. I read the lesson book and it showed me about this issue.

Firstly, after certain verbs, it is possible to use the interrogative conjunction how, what, who, where, when or whether with a to-infinitive.

for examples:

• I wonder who to invite.
• Can you tell me how to get to the station?
• Show us what to do.
• I don't know whether to answer his letter.
• Ask my father where to park the car.
• Did you find out when to pay?

The verbs are know, ask, tell, explain, show, wonder, consider, find out, understand, and others with similar meanings.

Secondly, note that it is not possible to begin a question with How to...? Who to...?

These are typical mistakes:

1. How to tell her?
2. Who to pay?

Instead, we say, for examples:

1. How shall I tell her?
2. How can I tell you?
3. Who should I pay?
4. Who did pay the bill?

'by' and 'near'

Picture is credited to http://ptiteouch.deviantart.com/art/letters-73769764

I opened the book, and it was page 125. I studied about by and near. What's the difference...?

In fact, by means just at the side of; something that is by you may be closer than something that is near you.

So I compared the examples:

1. We live near the sea (perhaps five kilometers away).
2. We live by the sea (we can see it).

Then I knew the meaning of a clause, "Please, stand by me, Dear."

So when a girl say it to me, she wants me not only standing near her, but standing by her instead (so she can see me always).

Oh, what a romantic statement!

So I made some sentences used by and near:

I live near Pekayon. Actually, my residence is by Metropolitan Mall (I can see the mall from my window). And near my residence, it's about 1 kilometer to the South, there's a laundry service corner that I always use. When I go to that laundry service corner, there's a porridge stall standing by the main road. I can see it from there.

Ask for Description

When we ask for description of someone or something, we can use: 'what' + to be + 'like'?

• What is your bike like?
• What is the weather like in winter?
• What is Indonesian food like?

We usually don't use the word 'like' in the answer, unless we are comparing two things.

• The weather is wet and cold.
• The weather in winter is not like rain season in your country.

NUMBER OF NOUNS

Number of Nouns

An English noun can be singular or plural in number.

1. Generally speaking, a singular noun becomes plural by adding 's' to is, such as persons, girls, dogs, cats, books, chairs, etc.  Many common nouns become plural in this way.
2. But a large number of other common nouns do not form their plural number by adding 's', but by adding 'es', 'ies', or 'ves'.  Some examples are hero-heroes, church-churches, lady-ladies, city-cities, shelf-shelves, wife-wives. Other irregular methods are seen in words like man-men, tooth-teeth, child-children.

Examples:

#     He is a nice man. Have you come across nice men?

note : come across is an idiom which means meet/find by chance.

Types of Nouns

TYPES OF NOUNS

A noun is a name for a person, animal, thing, place or idea.  There are these types of nouns: common, proper, material, collective, abstract.

1. Common Noun

Common nouns are the general names of people, animals, things and places.  Pupil, lady, hen, duck, pen, desk, etc. are common nouns.

2. Proper Noun

John, China, London, Harvard University, Reader's Digest, etc. are proper nouns, which refer to special persons, places and things. The first letter of such a noun is in capital letters.

Proper nouns include :

• Days of the week ( Sunday, Monday, Tuesday,...)
• Months (January, February, March, ...)
• States (New Hampshire, Vermont, California, Indonesia, ...)
• People (Jonathan, Ahmad, President Roosevelt, Uncle Agus, ...)
• Institutions (Mercy Hospital, Charter Oaks School, SMP Marsudirini, ...)
• Geographical terms (Southern Hemisphere, New England, Atlantic Ocean, Merapi Mountain,...)
• Storms (Hurricane Ivan, Tropical Storm Beth, ...)

Example :

On Monday, I took my Aunt Indah to the Picasso Exhibit at the museum.

3.  Material Noun

Water, air, sand, sugar, flour, oil, etc. are the material things in life and they are called material nouns.

4.  Collective Noun

When a noun stands for a number of persons or things as a single unit, it is a collective noun, such as team, crowd, etc.

5.  Abstract Noun

A large number of nouns refer to qualities such as love, hatred, honesty, kindness, and conditions such as happiness, sickness.  Such nouns are abstract in nature and are therefore called abstract nouns.