Why are advice and information never plural?
Choose the right quantity words with countable and uncountable nouns.
2 min read · Updated 9/8/2026
The key idea
In English, some nouns are not counted the way they are in many other languages. Advice, information, homework, furniture are uncountable nouns in these everyday meanings.
- some advice — a bit of guidance
- a piece of information — one fact or detail
- a lot of homework — a large amount of schoolwork
Many/few are used with countable plural nouns, and much/little with uncountable nouns. A lot of can go with both.
See an example
Wrong: The teacher gave me three advices.
Correction: The teacher gave me three pieces of advice.
There aren't many books, but there is a lot of useful information.
Books is countable; information is not countable in this meaning. That is why the noun and verb forms differ too.
Now you try
Correct the mistakes.
- I need more informations about the course.
- How many homework do we have?
- There are a few useful ___ on the website. (tip / tips)
A personal draft. It is not saved when you leave or automatically graded.
Reveal the answer and explanation
Answer and explanation
- I need more information about the course.
- How much homework do we have?
- tips — a few is used with a countable plural noun.
Tip is countable in the meaning of a piece of advice, whereas advice is not. Words with a similar meaning may not behave the same way grammatically.
People is or people are?
Official sources for this topic
British Council · Grammar