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4. Most nouns ending in -ing. Exceptions include "building," "feeling," "dealing," "wedding" and
"helping" when it means a portion of food; "a saving" is economy, but "savings" is an amount of money;
"furnishings" is always plural.
camping parking
clothing shopping
dancing smoking
hiking studying
learning trying
lightning waiting
5. Many abstract nouns including those ending in -ness, -ance, -ence, -ity:
beauty peace
equality plenty
happiness sanity
ignorance serenity
importance selfishness
obsolescence verbosity
6. Names of branches of human learning ending in -ics:
acoustics politics
linguistics
mathematics physics
phonetics statistics
Another group of uncountable nouns occurs only in the plural form. They can take the definite article
or no article at all in front of them; no numerals can be used with them. Here is a list of common plural
nouns:
archives particulars
congratulations proceeds
contents remains
goods surroundings
odds thanks
outskirts whereabouts
Some plural nouns refer to items of clothing and other objects consisting of two parts:
braces binoculars
breeches glasses
jeans pincers
knickers pliers
leggins scales
pants scissors
pyjamas shears
shorts spectacles
tights tongs
trousers tweezers
"A pair of is used to show that one item is meant.
Many nouns are countable (C) in one meaning and are uncountable (U) in another.
paper n 1 U substance manufactured from wood fibre, etc.
2 newspaper
3 U ~ money, banknotes
4 pi documents showing who sb is
5 set of printed examination questions on a given subject
6 essay, esp one to be read to a learned society