hello,
Please, could you tell me when the nouns 'lettuce' and 'cake' are used as countable and uncountable nouns? as my dictionary says that they can be both.
thank you in advance
I baked a cake.
Lettuce is a mass noun meaning a determiner a/an is not used. So we have to use a head of, a piece of, etc. to show quantity. For example: He bought a head of lettuce and then made a salad with a few pieces of lettuce.
Paco2004 wrote:"Lettuce" is countable before being served at the eating table, but uncountable when you eat. (EX) They grow cabbages and lettuces in the field. (EX) Do you prefer lettuce in your salad, or cabbage?"Cake" is countable before being cut into pieces but after then it is uncountable. (EX) Mother is baking a cake for my birthday. (EX) Would you like to have some cake?paco
Lettuces means a variety of i.e. the different kinds of lettuce. Hence, lettuce is not countable.
Paco2004 wrote:Hello My2sensesWhatever kind of lettuces they are, I can count lettuces, saying "one lettuce, two lettuces, three lettuces, ...". It would be because I am good at arithmetic. How about you?paco
Horrible at arithmetic but the plural of lettuce is lettuce. I can count 1 head of lettuce, 2 heads of lettuce and so on.
My2sense wrote:Horrible at arithmetic but the plural of lettuce is lettuce. I can count 1 head of lettuce, 2 heads of lettuce and so on.
I think what we have here is a difference between American English and British English. From what my British colleagues tell me they buy 2 lettuces and from what I know being a speaker of American English is that we buy 2 heads of lettuce.
Result is: it can be used either way.