Food vs. Foods: What’s the Difference?

English is often difficult to completely master, even for a native speaker. The English language is continually evolving. While plurals seem straightforward, there are numerous exceptions, such as food and foods; and how to know what the difference is between the two.

“Food” is almost always an uncountable noun used to refer to food in general, while “foods” is the countable plural noun, meaning kinds of food. When used as an attributive noun, “food” functions much like an adjective for either singular or plural nouns although we might find the word “food” used as a countable singular noun in rare cases.

This article will discuss food versus foods, count and noncount nouns, determiners, and issues related to words of quantity. Read on to become an expert not just on food vs. foods, but all count and noncount nouns you encounter.

Is Foods the Plural of Food?

The short answer is yes, but we’ll need to understand the function of count and noncount nouns to know when to use this form properly. Food is most often used in the singular form as a noncount noun for the category of food; however, we use the plural form “foods” when referring to multiple food types (source).

For example, you might have Chinese food, Italian food, Mexican food, all in one place during a festival or some special buffet. If you sampled them all, you could claim to have tried various foods from around the globe.

There are various noun categories, including singular, plural, common, collective, noncount, count, and attributive nouns (source).

Singular nouns refer to a specific subject such as food, cabin, boy, wall, door. 

Plural nouns refer to more than one, such as foods, cabins, boys, walls, doors.

Common nouns, as opposed to capitalized proper nouns, are not specific, referring to a very broad class of something, like milk or coffee.

Common nouns do not refer to individuals as individuals but by the common characteristics denoted by the noun. Food is a common noun.

Collective nouns are also known as group nouns that reference a group of individuals as a single entity. The three types of collective nouns are persons, animals, or things, whether objects or concepts.

Examples include a child, a herd, or a bouquet of flowers. We can use them with indefinite articles and they have plural forms.

Uncountable, noncount, or mass nouns refer to a substance we can divide indefinitely or an abstract concept.

They differ from collective nouns in that we do not use them in English with an indefinite article unless they are double nouns, and they do not have a plural form.

Many foods are noncount nouns like sugar, rice, pepper, or tea (source).

Count nouns refer to kinds of people, animals, or things that can be counted individually, such as foods, chairs, pens, and dollars. We can easily assign numbers or definite articles to them, and they have singular and plural forms.

Attributive nouns often function as adjectives, describing another noun as in the case of “food group” or “food groups.” Merriam-Webster lists “food” as a noun and one that is often attributive (source). 

It is interesting to note that attributive nouns sound like compound nouns when spoken —  for example, a steel bridge or a wood house — but they are not compound nouns.

Compound nouns such as “rowboat” or “rainbow” are not attributive nouns. Row does not modify the boat, and rain does not modify the bow.

The noun that the attributive noun modifies can be either singular or plural.

Noun	Example Sentences
Noncount	Food makes me happy.
Countable Singular	Cereal is a food. The girl is eating an orange.
Noncount	Cereal is food. Let’s go out for some food. We ate a lot of food.
Countable Plural	There are so many foods to choose. The buffet was a smorgasbord of foods from different countries. There are many Asian restaurants that serve foods from China and Korea.
Attributive	What are the major food groups? Do you have food allergies? The food choice was limited.

In the second example, “Cereal is a food,” the word “food” is a countable singular noun, placing the uncountable noun “Cereal” as one type of food.

We can also omit the article “a” and simply state that cereal is food. Adding an article helps to emphasize something as a particular example of a larger concept.

Food and Foods as Count Nouns

Both the words “food” and “foods” can be countable nouns, depending on the context. When used in the countable category, the definition always refers to the different types.

A count noun is just what it sounds like — something made up of distinct, countable units, so they can take singular or plural forms.

A count noun will often have a quantity word, number, or article in front of it. For instance, the count noun “table” is written as “a table,” “the table,” “one table,” “five tables,” or “the tables” (source).

The key to understanding the use of countable and uncountable nouns is their relationship to determiners, which includes definite articles, indefinite articles, possessives, quantifiers, and numbers (source).

A determiner is similar to an adjective, except a determiner can only go before the noun.

Again, “foods” is always a countable noun, while “food” can be countable or uncountable. When used in the uncountable category, “food” refers to the things we eat. When used as a countable noun, food refers to particular types of food (source).

Countable Singular Food	Noncount Singular Food
Food = particular types of food.	Food = the things we eat.
The fruit is a food.	I ate too much food.
The pears are a food.	I ate the food on my plate.
He has a food allergy.	Hey, that was my food!
There are five food groups.	We went out for some food.
He prepared 10 food dishes.	We watched him prepare the food.

Count Nouns and Indefinite Articles

When we add an “a” or “an” in front of a noun, we turn it into something we can break down into smaller pieces or elements.

“A” and “an” are used as modifiers for nonspecific nouns, so they are called indefinite articles. The articles “a” or “an” are only used with singular count nouns and never with noncount nouns.

Since food begins with the consonant “f,” we use the article “a” instead of “an,” which is only used for words beginning with the vowel sound (source).

Singular	Example Sentence	Plural	Example Sentence
food	An apple is a delicious food.	foods	Many types of food are served in the cafeteria.
food	What type of food is your favorite, Asian or American?	foods	I like a variety of foods, including fruits and vegetables.
orange	I ate an orange.	oranges	I like oranges.
bean	What kind of bean do you like?	beans	There are many varieties of beans.
boy	John is a boy.	boys	John and Bill are boys.
soup	My favorite soup is tomato.	soups	I can never decide which soups to buy at the store.
cookbook	Jane borrowed one cookbook from the library.	cookbooks	John borrowed four cookbooks.
coat	I have a coat.	coats	I have a few winter coats.
hat	John’s hat is over there.	hats	John has many hats.

Count Nouns and Definite Articles

“The” is used when referring to specific nouns, so we call it a definite article.

A definite article is when the reader knows the noun’s identity — for example, “The orange was delicious.” “The” can also modify noncount nouns — for example, “The food” or “The coffee” (source).

It is essential to remember that count nouns have both singular and plural forms, whereas noncount nouns do not have a plural form.

Noncount Nouns	Definite Article The
Food	The food is delicious.
health	The health of our students is in jeopardy.
English	The English test was easy.
fur	The fur on the cat was fluffy.

Count Nouns: Quantifiers and Numbers

We can only add numbers before counts nouns, but we can add quantifiers before either count nouns or noncount nouns. We can attach quantifiers like some, enough, all, more, less, no, any, none, plenty of, lots of, and not to either count or noncount nouns.

However, there are some quantifiers that we can only use with count nouns, like several, many, few, a number of, and a majority of.

Quantifier	Count Noun	Example Sentence
some	grapes	I have some grapes.
several	foods	There were several foods to choose from.
many	food	The caterers wanted to ensure there were many food options.
few	food	The menu listed few low-fat foods.
enough	apples	I can never have enough apples.

Number	Count Noun	Example Sentence
one	food	I had to choose one food.
two	food	They gave me two food options.
three	foods	The meal centered around three foods.
nine	potatoes	I have nine potatoes.
four	eggs	He added four eggs.

Food as a Noncount Noun

Inversely, an uncountable, noncount, or mass noun is not countable. Noncount nouns are considered whole, undividable into different parts. Noncount nouns generally refer to abstractions and sometimes have a collective meaning (source).

Noncount nouns do not always require articles, and when they use them, they always use “the” and never “a” or “an.”

Noncount nouns do not have a plural form. The categories included under noncount nouns are a mass, an organic substance, food, abstract concepts, games, disease, school subjects, and a language. However, we will discover rules have exceptions.

Category	Noncount Nouns
A mass	Clothes, money, work
Organic substance	Hair, blood
Food	Milk, bread, cream, water
Abstract concept	Health, time, education
A game	Lacrosse, chess, volleyball
Diseases	Flu, virus, cold, chickenpox
School subject	English, science, math
A language	German, Portgegese, Polish

Noncount Nouns	Example Sentence
Food	Food makes me happy.The food was great!
Money	Joe made a lot of money over the summer.
Hair	My hair is greasy.
Cream	I enjoy cream in my coffee.
Health	Marvin is in good health.
Lacrosse	Lacrosse is not an easy sport to play.
Chicken Pox	The little girl has chickenpox.
Math	Math was never my favorite subject.
German	German is not an easy language to learn.

Noncount Nouns: Quantifiers

While we can apply qualifiers to count and noncount nouns, there are some quantifiers we can only use with noncount nouns. These include much, little, a bit, a large amount of, a great deal of, and a large quantity of. 

Quantifier	Count/Noncount	Example Sentence
much	noncount	I have so much food.
many	count	I have so many bananas.
A lot of (much)	noncount	I have a lot of food.
Lots of (many)	count	I have lots of food.
little	uncountable	I have very little food to eat.
few	count	A have a few pieces of candy.
A little bit of	uncountable	There is a little bit of wine in the stew.

Others that can modify both count and noncount nouns are some, any, plenty of, enough, and no, all referring to a nonspecific amount. “Foods” will always be countable, while “food” is usually uncountable.

Quantifier	Count/Noncount	Example Sentence
some	noncount	There is some juice on the counter.
some	noncount	I have some food.
any	noncount	I don’t have any candy.
any	count	Do you have any apples?
Plenty of	noncount	I have plenty of food for the party.
enough	count	I have enough apples for every child.
no	count	There are no more bananas to eat.

Food and Double Nouns

Food can function as a count or noncount noun. However, the meaning changes a bit depending on the use. According to the writing center at Walden University, the name for such nouns is double nouns (source). 

When double nouns are in the noncount form, they refer to a whole idea. When used in the count form, it must be used with an indefinite article or changed to plural. Most double nouns refer to food.

A few examples of double nouns as food and different food types, such as wine, cheese, and tea. Here are examples using the same noun as both count and noncount:

Count	Example Sentence	Noncount	Example Sentence
food	An apple is food.	food	Let’s go out for some food.
wine	There are so many varieties of wine.	wine	The Sonoma Valley in California produces some of the finest wine.
glass	I have a glass of milk.	glass	We use glass cups for milk.
tea	I drank four cups of tea today.	tea	My favorite tea is red rooibos.
life	She leads a dangerous life.	life	Life is precious.

Final Thoughts

No discussion on nouns would be complete without delving into articles, the function of determiners for both count and noncount nouns, and the function of adjectives apart from articles.

You will most often encounter “food” as an uncountable noun, but “foods” will always be a countable noun. When you do encounter “food” as a countable noun, it will have the indefinite article “a” in front of it.