{"id":2437,"date":"2015-11-18T09:00:58","date_gmt":"2015-11-18T17:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/?p=2437"},"modified":"2015-10-28T13:18:18","modified_gmt":"2015-10-28T20:18:18","slug":"nouns-of-measurement-and-non-countable-nouns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/nouns-of-measurement-and-non-countable-nouns\/","title":{"rendered":"Nouns of Measurement and Non-Countable Nouns"},"content":{"rendered":"

A noun of measurement<\/em> is a noun that describes a unit of measurement or a quantity of something.<\/p>\n

In either English or your native language, you probably use nouns of measurement all the time. You may tell your teacher that you have a number <\/strong>of questions. In this case \u201ca number\u201d is a noun phrase of measurement used to describe the quantity of questions you have.\u00a0 Or you may go grocery shopping for food that costs a certain amount of money per pound or kilogram. In that situation, you might want to measure the weight<\/strong> of the food on a supermarket scale. Here, \u201cweight\u201d is a noun of measurement that describes the amount of food you\u2019ll pay for.<\/p>\n

In the examples above, you can see that \u201cnumber\u201d is a noun of measurement that can really only be used to describe countable<\/em> nouns. If the quantity of something can be described in specific numbers<\/em> such as 1, 2, 3, etc\u2026. then it must be something that can be counted, right?<\/p>\n

Other numerical nouns of measurement also are exclusive to countable nouns\u2014you can buy a dozen<\/strong> eggs, but you can\u2019t use the word \u201cdozen\u201d to refer to the amount of water in a bottle. And you can talk about a group<\/strong> of animals, but you can\u2019t describe a \u201cgroup\u201d of air.<\/p>\n

Similarly, there are nouns of measurement that almost always refer to certain types of non-countable<\/em> nouns. As seen above, you talk about the weight<\/strong> of non-countable things such as hamburger, sugar, etc\u2026You can also talk about the length<\/strong> of a non-countable noun such as hair or fabric.<\/p>\n

Words like weight<\/strong> and length<\/strong> can only refer to countable nouns in a very limited way. They can describe the characteristics of an in individual countable noun\u2014you can talk about a gorilla with a weight<\/strong> of 500 pounds, or a pencil with a length<\/strong> of 16 centimeters. But you wouldn\u2019t look at a group of gorillas and call it a \u201cweight\u201d of gorillas, or describe a box of pencils as a \u201clength\u201d of pencils.<\/p>\n

Still, there are some other nouns of measurement that can easily describe either countable or non-countable nouns in the same way. There can be a quantity <\/strong>of apples or a quantity <\/strong>of apple juice. You can have a certain amount <\/strong>of cars or a certain amount<\/strong> of car fuel.<\/p>\n

So far we\u2019ve been looking at nouns of measurement that describe material<\/em> things that can be touched and seen. But nouns of measurement can measure both material<\/em> non-countable nouns and non-countable nouns that can\u2019t actually be touched or seen.<\/p>\n

One good example of this is the non-countable noun \u201cvolume.\u201d While volume<\/strong> is most often a measurement of material things and the amount of space they take up, such as a bucket that can hold a volume of 3,000 square centimeters, volume also describes one non-countable noun. The non-material noun of sound<\/em> can be measured by volume<\/strong>, too. A very loud sound has a higher volume<\/strong> than a quieter sound.<\/p>\n

Other nouns of measurement pretty much only measure immaterial<\/em> non-countable nouns. Intensity<\/strong> measures immaterial things such as pressure or heat. Comprehensibility<\/strong> measures the non-countable noun of language. (Language has more comprehensibility<\/strong> if it can be understood very well, less comprehensibility <\/strong>if it\u2019s hard to understand.)<\/p>\n

Understanding exactly which noun is being modified by an additional noun of measurement<\/em> is a powerful TOEFL skill. It can help you understand which important nouns from a reading passage or lecture are being referred to and described in a given sentence. Let\u2019s look at an example where this can come in handy. Here are two sentences taken from a Magoosh TOEFL Premium<\/a> Reading passage (consider this to be a tiny free preview):<\/p>\n

One must be careful not to come too close to the most powerful of cicadas, whose sound, if heard from just outside the human ear, is known to cause long-term or irreversible physical damage. That intense volume<\/strong> is paired with an uncanny ability to maintain the signature song.<\/p>\n

Here, you could easily get confused about what volume<\/strong> is describing. The first sentence has so many different nouns in it! It could be hard to guess whether \u201cvolume\u201d refers to the cicadas<\/em>, or to their sound<\/em>, or to the physical damage<\/em> their sound can sometimes cause.<\/p>\n

But if you understand nouns of measurement well, you can recognize that volume only refers to non-countable nouns that are material, and sound<\/em>. Cicadas<\/em> are countable, and damage<\/em> is non-countable and non-material. Although damage<\/em> has an effect on physical objects, damage<\/em> itself has no specific, clearly defined physical features. So you can know that volume<\/strong> must refer only to the sound <\/em>of the cicada, and you can easily understand the meaning of a passage that might otherwise be very hard.<\/p>\n

Understanding nouns of measurement what they can refer to is an important language ability to have. In my next post on this subject, we\u2019ll do some activities that help you master this valuable skill.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A noun of measurement is a noun that describes a unit of measurement or a quantity of something. <\/p>\n

In either English or your native language, you probably use nouns of measurement all the time. You may tell your teacher that you have a number of questions. In this case \u201ca number\u201d is a noun phrase of measurement used to describe the quantity of questions you have. Or you may go grocery shopping for food that costs a certain amount of money per pound or kilogram. In that situation, you might want to measure the weight of the food on a supermarket scale. Here, \u201cweight\u201d is a noun of measurement that describes the amount of food you\u2019ll pay for.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13603],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[13630],"class_list":["post-2437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grammar"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nNouns of Measurement and Non-Countable Nouns - Magoosh Blog \u2013 TOEFL\u00ae\ufe0f Test<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/nouns-of-measurement-and-non-countable-nouns\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nouns of Measurement and Non-Countable Nouns\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A noun of measurement is a noun that describes a unit of measurement or a quantity of something. 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Additionally, he's helped students with TOEIC, PET, FCE, BULATS, Eiken, SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT. David has a BS and MA from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MagooshEnglishLearning","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/david-recine\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCra3KQoJlOP7RYwaCyH2qew"],"knowsAbout":["TOEFL","IELTS","TOEIC","PET","FCE","BULATS","Eiken","SAT","ACT","GRE","GMAT"],"knowsLanguage":["English","Italian"],"jobTitle":"Content Creator","worksFor":"Magoosh","url":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/author\/davidr\/"}]}},"authors":[{"term_id":13630,"user_id":80,"is_guest":0,"slug":"davidr","display_name":"David Recine","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b70c17ee6f3ef87dc4cc5dbdebda911d6dd30dfe15845e4b1d459a3e1b33ef98?s=96&d=mm&r=g","user_url":"","last_name":"Recine","first_name":"David","description":"David is a Test Prep Expert for Magoosh TOEFL and IELTS. Additionally, he's helped students with TOEIC, PET, FCE, BULATS, Eiken, SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT.\r\n\r\nDavid has a BS from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an MA from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. His work at Magoosh has been cited in<a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C50&q=Recine+magoosh&btnG=\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> many scholarly articles<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/minds.wisconsin.edu\/handle\/1793\/65479\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> his Master's Thesis<\/a> is featured on the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.readingwithpictures.org\/2013\/09\/research-highlight-teaching-english-language-learners-with-comics\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Reading with Pictures<\/a> website, and he's presented at the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.witesol.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/2014-WITESOL-Program-FINAL-10-28-14.pdf\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> WITESOL (link to PDF)<\/a> and<a href=\"https:\/\/issuu.com\/interoff\/docs\/nafsaregionv_2014conference\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> NAFSA<\/a> conferences. David has taught K-12 ESL in South Korea as well as undergraduate English and MBA-level business English at American universities. He has also trained English teachers in America, Italy, and Peru.\r\n\r\nCome join David and the Magoosh team on<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCra3KQoJlOP7RYwaCyH2qew\"> Youtube<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MagooshEnglishLearning\"> Facebook<\/a>, and<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/magooshenglish\/?hl=en\"> Instagram<\/a>, or connect with him via<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/david-recine\/\"> LinkedIn<\/a>!"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2437\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2437"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/toefl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=2437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}