countable/ uncountable
It is difficult for learners to understand that advice for ex.does not have a plural.I guess there must be a list of these nouns, yet it is even worse if we see nouns that can be either countable or uncount.
How can we know if
Improvement has to be preceded by " a" or not in sentences like

This needs improvement. ??

Thanks

Question

countable/ uncountable
It is difficult for learners to understand that advice for ex.does not have a plural.I guess there must be a list of these nouns, yet it is even worse if we see nouns that can be either countable or uncount.
How can we know if
Improvement has to be preceded by " a" or not in sentences like

This needs improvement. ??

Thanks

Answer

Probably almost every single noun can be both mass and count. I doubt that trying to memorize a list is the best method. Instead, I suggest learning one noun at a time. One dictionary that is very good at showing whether a noun is mass or count or both is the Merriam-Webster Learner's Dictionary. It also gives example sentences. For example, here is its definition of improvement: http://www.learnersdictionary.com/definition/Improvement%20