By Nouns, Resume

Hi, I was looking at my dictionary to look up the word "writing" and it said it is an uncountable noun. OK, but it has a plural form "writings" right beside the word "writing." I presume the plural word "writings' is an uncountable too like its singular form "writing." Can you help me to...

Thank you. How come my dictionary does not say (literally) it is a abstract conceptual noun which I presume to be a subset of the whole uncountable noun category? It just said it is countable nouns and I thought you need a "the" before a countable word "grade."

Hi, CJ. Hi, Paco. Good discussion! And, lucid explanations, CJ. I especially like your view on the tendency to mark sentences with generic plural nouns as describing a habit. Generic plural nouns are used sometimes to render an emphatic effect: e.g.”Mangoes are high in fibre but low in calories...

I don't entirely agree. I think the confusion lies in the passive voice. I will rewrite what I presume the author is trying to say. Today everything is supposed to be known (by someone), if everything is not known by us then everything is known to some expert, whose business it is know...

I presume you mean no indefinite article 'a' either, Elviajero? That leaves us with: (1) unspecified plurals: 'I love cats'; (2) nouns modified by a possessive, demonstrative, quantifier, etc: 'some/my/this/those cat/cats. They are likely to be some other cases that I have forgotten.

'There is a lot more to be done. (noun)' -- pronoun, actually: 'a lot more ' 'I need a lot more books. (adjective)' -- yes, or determiner. 'This one is a lot more expensive (adverb)' -- yes, modifying the adjective. I suppose that 'more... than' can be extrapolated from all such cases, though I...

An 'undetermined gerund' may be an unmodified gerund, which looks uncomfortably like the participle (the nonfinite clause)-- and that could be the reason your teacher considers it unacceptable. 'He slept during my reading' is OK-- it is now more likely a gerund. 'He slept during his reading' is...

Is it because it seems slightly presumptuous to ask if something is 'fine'? 'Fine' is the gracious response: 'good' with a gratuity. The questioner should not presume. I detect something a little odd too, when we repeat the noun: 'How is the pizza?' The waitress should really have said 'is...

Hi Jeff, I almost missed this one, even with the title. Moderators (at least this one) often have time only to look down the 'Replies' column to see which new posts are unanswered-- but you 'answered' yourself twice! Now let's see-- We can't really compare 'all (of)' with 'each (of)'...

'Position Statement' is a common financial collocation, and a noun used as an adjective is normally in the singular ('shoe store'), so I presume that the singular would be the best choice here, unless there are obviously several positions presented at the same time and you wish to stress that.