By Countable nouns, Singular nouns

the word "lack" countable or uncountable

Hi there, I am from an asian country (korea) and Korean doesn't distinguish countable or uncountable nouns so I have some problem with this concept even though I have been living in english speaking country for 10 years. Now the word "lack" according to the online Longman...

Re: in quotation marks

Hi, Should I treat what is in a pair of quotation marks just like an adjective without any difference in terms of whether to place an article or not? Yes. I feel like you have to have an article, 'a' or 'the' or 'an', before a quoted content acting as an adjective for a...

Re: evening (without preposition) / to start to doing

CalifJim wrote:since laughter is an uncountable noun, unlike evening.Unlike evening? Wow! In that sentence I understand evening as uncountable! (evening-ness?) Aren't all singular nouns in English uncountable when used without articles?I didn't make my point clearly enough. I said evening...

Re: evening (without preposition) / to start to doing

since laughter is an uncountable noun, unlike evening.Unlike evening? Wow! In that sentence I understand evening as uncountable! (evening-ness?) Aren't all singular nouns in English uncountable when used without articles? CJ

Re: Which sentence is correct?

Hi, Which sentence is correct? 1. I ate prawn last night. No 2. I ate prawns last night. OK 3. I had prawns for dinner last night.OK "prawn" is a countable noun but I heard when we refer to "the meat" we should treat the noun as a singular noun. For some types of meat, but it sounds odd to...

Which sentence is correct?

Hi.. Which sentence is correct? 1. I ate prawn last night. 2. I ate prawns last night. 3. I had prawn(s) for dinner last night. "prawn" is a countable noun but I heard when we refer to "the meat" we should treat the noun as a singular noun. Is it right? Thanks before

Re: Correct term for singular possessive as stand-in for a group

I think the grammatical term could be generic noun phrases. When a noun is mentioned as a symbol, example, or representative of all members of a group (almost the same as all + plural or noncount nouns or any + a singular noun) we refer to it as having "generic" reference. A few generic...

any in summary

I have gone through a lot of the old posts on the topic any. This is my understanding of any usage. Any can be followed by a plural/uncountable/singular noun. 1. When any is used in interogative or negative form, it is usually followed by a plural/uncountable noun. Does it mean that the verb...

The classification of words and the article attached (+abstract plural)

People have found this text useful so I am repeating it here in this entirety with error fixed (there are several posts combined in it) Before I give you more detailed explanation I have to tell you that in dictionaries you can frequently find the type of the word: countable, uncountable, mass,...

Re: the cases of abstract nouns taking "thes"

Before I give you more detailed explanation I have to tell you that in dictionaries you can frequently find the type of the word: countable, uncountable, mass, abstract… However what is more important is to understand that the context is equally important. You can turn many words into abstract if...