In Nouns^x, Dialects^x, American English^x

Avangi, Jackson: The rule is that articles (definite, indefinite) are omitted in the case of mass nouns (non-count), and required for count nouns. "Language" is a count noun. Thus, I can say: I speak two language s - Spanish and Greek. I am studying the language of the tribal...

Congratulations on your hard work. - A. Edit. "Why is the article "the" essential here?"

Hi Avangi, It is a proper word according to the Merriam-Webster's dictionary.

Well... never forget that I use American English. And I've been frequently surprised by some of the differences between the various dialects. But that's how *I* would use credits as a countable noun.

I have trouble figuring out why 'grammar experts' get the blame for these. There are a number of reasons why people might disagree over these usages: colloquial vs written, American vs British, PC vs non-PC, prescriptivism vs descriptivism, and even one or two examples where there are...

Yoko: Some of my dictionaries say that "deer" is both the singular and the plural form. Additionally, Yoko, There is one deer in the park. There are two deer in the park. "deer" doesn't take -s in the plural. It's a mass noun. But in my dialect, Canadian English, as I am sure...

I sympathize with Jeff. When I was learning English--that's decades ago--I read a grammar book delineating the same rule as Jeff brought up. As years passed, I realized that's a rather weird rule. I checked it with native speakers, they said in unison to the effect that I should forget the...