Search results for 'tag:Universities tag:Uncountable nouns' matching tags 'Universities' and 'Uncountable nouns'

Re: Article usage: proper noun and uncountable noun correspondence?

Cool Breeze — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 08:57:58 GMT

1. It may be unwise to say that something can be done to all proper nouns in English because there seem to be so many exceptions to every rule. However, using a and the with proper nouns in certain contexts is normal. The of-genitive - or of structure - or whatever you prefer to call it often requires the:

the England of my dreams

An adjectival attribute is a common reason for a:

We saw a sad George Bush on television last night.

He wants to live in a different England.

2. The names of cemeteries are not listed in grammar books as requiring the. Moreover, it is normal that if a name is made up of a proper noun plus a common noun, no article is used:

Gatwick Airport, Oslo University, London Bridge, Westminster Abbey

Re: creams and detergents

Goodman — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 16:19:09 GMT

Mr. Miclawer,

I wasnât going to expand this pluralization discussion on âcreamsâ and âwinesâ.
But it really bothered the heck out of me for two reasons.
1) I really wanted to find out if I was really blowing hot air on this subject
because of my misunderstanding of this topic, and 2) if there is another side of the usage
I am not aware of.
This is perhaps not relevant to the discussion but to establish my point, I think it needs
to be said. Mrs. Milton whom I learned English from was an excellent English teacher who
also had taught for 5 years at the Beijing University, which is a top University in China, by
invitation of the Government. Many of her students had landed positions working for the
Chinese Government and the U.N. as translators and interpreters. I was very blessed to be
among her students. Most of my English foundation was learned from her. And I was really
surprised to see your examples pluralizing âcreamâ and âwineâ. By your earlier examples, which I
compared with the information found on the WEB, I must ask this question. Am I to understand
that itâs completely grammatical to say in a restaurant âmay I have 2 waters and soups?â. I know
we hear that all the time but if we are discussing the whether a particular usage is grammatically
correct, running into this type of scenario is inevitable. Here are some âsupportsâ you had
asked for which may not may not be validated to your satisfaction. No doubt, you are the
English authority and perhaps possess âsuperiorityâ over many frequented this forum and I donât
mean to sound like challenging your examples, let alone to waste anymore of your time.
Nonetheless, as a serious learner, Iâd owe the real answers to myself and the learners if I just
accepted your answers as given. I may be wrong with my search result and you are correct.
And If so, here is my âadvanced apologyâ.

Nouns only countable nouns can be either singular or plural. ... He had some ice cream on
his face. He had an ice cream. mass. countable ...
www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/dick/tta/wc/nouns.htm - 21k - Cached - Similar pages

http://ajaja.paradoxinc.org/Basic/Grammar/CountAndNoncount.ht

Liquids: beer, milk, coffee, blood, cream, juice, honey, gasoline, oil, shampoo, soup, tea, water, wine.

Solids and semi-solids: Bread, butter, cheese, ice, ice cream, lettuce, toast, meat, beef, chicken, fish, ham, lamb, pork, chalk, 
copper, cotton, glass, gold, iron, , soap, tin, toothpaste, wood, wool,

http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/grammar/countnon.html

A Revision of the RulesThe exceptions require that the rule for pluralizing be revised: count nouns and nouns used 
in a count sense can be pluralized; noncount nouns and nouns used in a noncount sense cannot.

	Pluralizes with -s	Does not Pluralize
Count Noun	X
Count Use	X
Noncount Noun		X
Noncount Use		X

http://au.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080425090142AAom2ui

Answers (4)

If coffee is an uncountable noun, cream certainly is by common sense. Thus the rule applies.

Â· Answerer 1

Many nouns can be used as countables or uncountables. It depends on whether you are thinking of a substance or
a single serving or object made of the substance. So:

Beer is fattening (uncountable - the substance)
Don't drink more than three beers a day. (Countable - servings)

I love chocolate (uncountable - the substance)
Get me a box of chocolates (countable - individual pieces)

A vase made of blown glass (uncountable - the substance)
A glass of wine (A single piece / artifact)

Coffee gives me indigestion (the substance - uncountable)
I need at least three coffees to wake up on a morning (countable - individual servings)

2 months ago

http://www3.law.cuny.edu/wc/students/multilingual/articles.html

Uncountable nouns often refer to drinks and food, other general substances, or concepts (meat, tea, steel, information, justice):

Examples of Uncountable Nouns in English:

Food and Drink: bacon, beef, beer, bread, butter, cabbage, candy, cauliflower, chicken, chocolate, coffee, corn,
cream, fish, fruit, juice, lettuce, meat, milk, oil, pasta, rice, salt, spinach, sugar, tea, water, whiskey, wine, yogurt.
General Substances: air,cement, clay, coal, copper, dirt, dust, foam, gasoline, gold, ice, leather, paper, petroleum,
plastic, rain, rubber, silver, soap, steel, wood, wool.
Abstract nouns: abandonment, access, adultery, advice, alimony, anger, anguish, arson, authentication, beauty, capacity,
conduct, confidence, courage, deprivation, desperation, discretion, employment, empowerment, evidence, extortion, fortune,
fun, happiness, health, honesty, housing, information, insurance, intelligence, intent, knowledge, land, love, malice, negligence,
poverty, privacy, real estate, sadness, satisfaction, strength, truth, wealth.
Others: biology, clothing, darkness, equipment, furniture, gossip, homework, jewelry, luggage, machinery, mail, money, music,
news, poetry, pollution, research, scenery, traffic, transportation, violence, weather, weight, work.

Some uncountable nouns (except for concepts) can be turned into countable nouns by preposing a phrase to them
(two bottles of wine, a bar of soap, a piece of information, an act of violence, a burst of anger, a piece of evidence).

e.g. The defendant's lawyer is sure the judge will accept new evidence in this case.

vs. The defendant's lawyer is sure the judge will accept three new pieces of evidence in this case.

Some uncountable nouns can be used in the plural, but their meaning changes:

experience / experiences: e.g., He had to rely on experience / I lived unforgettable experiences

Re: About the word 'music'

Vorpar — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 03:04:10 GMT

"I love to listen to music" "I love to listen to songs"

And by the way there isn't plural form for the word 'music', isn't it?; Uncountable nouns can't be used in situations where a plural would be used. Some English words are the same for both singular and plural e.g. deer

4: "They study hard at university" - This is a regional sentence. In America, we would say "They study hard at college." In England, the original sentence would be correct.

Re: Articles (a, an)

Hoa Thai — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 14:08:13 GMT

Yoong Liat wrote:
Hi Hoa Thai

From a webpage of Cambridge University International Education and Training Society, http://www.societies.cam.ac.uk/iets/
" ... Summarise general situations and common difficulties for students in graduate, undergraduate, A-Levels and GCSE courses, and provide advices and assistances to individual cases."

The word 'assistances', I believe, is a typo. 'Assistance' an uncountable noun. I've not come across 'assistances'. Could 'advices' be a typo too?

Dear Yoong Liat,

I maybe wrong, but I think people turn a noncount noun into a count noun because of their learning habit in grade schools (fish / fishes, water / waters, lemonade / a lemonade, etc...). The idea is to differentiate two or more types or groups of noncount entities. That is why advice also takes on the plural form. Here are a few examples:

I caught many fish today - no specific type.
Fishes show a starting variety of body forms and behaviors - different types of fish.

Please give me some water - no specific source.
Kayaking on the protected waters of Tomales Bay near San Francisco is fun - different water sources.

My parents give me their advice - no specific, just opinion.
This list contains the official advices from our embassy - various pieces of news / information.

All of the above can be found in dictionaries and usage handbooks. Thus, people like me assume that we can extend the principle to other noncount nouns.

In regards to assistance, one may find many governmental offices pluralize it too. For instance, they try to differentiate FEMA disaster assistance from those provided by various states; and refer to them as assistances.

Back to your question - if we follow the dictionaries strictly, one can assume that the statement given by Cambridge University IETS must contain typographical errors (i.e., by an unconscious action). However, we can also assume that whoever wrote that statement might consciously try to deliver various pieces of news knowing that they violated the so-called good writing practice and went for consistency.

Some people follow the leaders or take part in the majority; others decide to rebel in order to express their opinions, which they believe are more consistent and logical. I, myself, still need much time to learn to decide which side of the fence is right. So far, I believe this forum is the place for me to come for help when I am in doubt. I would appreciate that you could help me polish my language skills by giving me a few writing pointers while reading my replies.

Special thanks to you all,
Hoa Thai

Re: Articles (a, an)

Yoong Liat — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 11:04:39 GMT

Hi Hoa Thai

From a webpage of Cambridge University International Education and Training Society, http://www.societies.cam.ac.uk/iets/
" ... Summarise general situations and common difficulties for students in graduate, undergraduate, A-Levels and GCSE courses, and provide advices and assistances to individual cases."

The word 'assistances', I believe, is a typo. 'Assistance' an uncountable noun. I've not come across 'assistances'. Could 'advices' be a typo too?

Re: some questions including use of colon

Clive — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 17:59:46 GMT

Hi,

After a fake academic degree scandal of Ms.Shin, a former professor at Dongguk University, is exposed, a continual coming out of celebritiesâ âfake degreeâ is following like domino effect : Ms.Yunâs confession that she hasnât attended Ewha Univ. is also one of the case.

What is the difference, if any, between using "a continual coming out" and "a continual 'outing'" in terms of structural correctness, not considering its grammatical or semantical correctness? Can we say "a continual coming out" as a countable noun (sense), not it to mean "coming out in a sexual nature (or way),"; and using it as a gerund being used as a countable noun. Is "coming out" a gerund? I think a gerund is one that having the characteristic of both verb and noun. If it could, how would you see it as -- as the first mention of a countable noun or as an instance of the uncountable noun "coming out"? Sorry if my question is ambiguous.

I'm not sure what you are asking . I see both 'coming out' and 'outing' as gerunds. I suppose you could, if you wanted to, talk about 'several comings out' or 'several outings', although the plural forms do sound awkward and umcommon.

Best wishes, Clive

"a little" or "a few"

Mayjl — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 04:57:09 GMT

This is a question from Unit 87 of Cambridge University Press ç Grammar in Use.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Q: Listen carefully; I'm going to give you ________advice.

little/ a little/ few/ a few

Which one is the best answer?

-------------------------------------------------

The correct answer is âa few.â

My question is, âWhy is âa fewâ the best answer?â

In my grammar book, it said, ââlittle/a littleâ is used with an uncountable noun, and âfew/a fewâ is with a countable noun.â And âadviceâ is an uncountable noun. Shouldnât âlittle/a littleâ be more appropriate in this question?

By the way, is it possible that it is about British English and American English?

Thank you for the help. : )

Re: Could you please help me on this.

davkett — Sat, 11 Feb 2006 21:32:24 GMT

Milky, I'm sorry, but the 'sheep' analogy is not relevantl Here, quoted from Purdue University Online Writing Lab:

While uncountable nouns do not generally take a plural form, sometimes they may be pluralized when used in a countable sense. The difference between the uncountable and countable meanings of nouns that are used in either sense can be seen in the following chart:

Uncountable Sense

Countable Sense

Art is often called an imitation of life.

Life is precious.

He likes to eat pizza.

Religion has been a
powerful force in history.

She has beautiful skin.

Dr. Moulton is an expert in ancient Greek sculpture.

We use only recycled paper in our office.

I read a book about the folk arts of Sweden.

A cat has nine lives.

How many pizzas should we order?

Many religions are practiced in the United States.

The hull of a kayak is made of animal skins.

We have several sculptures in our home.

Where are those important papers?

Re: duties

Anonymous — Tue, 20 Sep 2005 23:20:29 GMT

I'm the anonymous who put the original.

The sentence given by Taka seems to have been in the English reading test in the entrance exam of a Japanese university. I guess the questioners changed the original text to avoid using difficult worlds like 'repressiveness'. But the result of the change is worsening the original so badly. I feel it is a bit stupid we have to continue a long talk about the interpretation of an English-like sentence made by Japanese people who badly corrupted an excellent original sentence.

By the way I think the Victorian motherhood was embodied by Florence Nightingale. Some women at that time tried to be more than obedient wives. Florence was the representative of them and her activities in Crimean War should have deeply influenced on the minds and behaviors of American women at the disaster of the Civil War.

I took the sentence in the original as follows. 'A duty that ...' is appositive or a paraphrase to 'moral responsibility'. I believe that in English there is not such a grammar rule that prohibits us to put a countable noun appositively to an uncountable noun.

No name.

Re: Please help me to correct my composition

Tearsofjoy — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 19:22:11 GMT

Some university universities(you need the plural when youâre using âsomeâ) are adopting Internet-based learning(or âe-learningâ for short) while others are sticking to the traditional, face-to-face teaching. Personally, I prefer the former.

Iâd like to explain the second change a little more fully than I could manage within the paragraph.chemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />>>

You have used the phrase âInternet-based e-learningâ. Now âInternet-basedâ and the prefix âe-â mean the same thing, so in effect you are using the same adjective twice, which is wrong grammar. Also, âInternet-based learningâ and âe-learningâ mean the same thing. Hence I have put the word âe-learningâ in brackets(parentheses if thatâs the term you are comfortable with), showing that it is an abbreviated form of the term âInternet-based learningâ.>>

With the rapid progress of modern technology, the taking-place replacement of traditional ways of living by electronics is inevitable(I think you would do well to change that to âit is inevitable that electronics replace the traditional ways of livingâ). And education is just part of the trend. This trend is surely not without reasons. Firstly, e-learning offers a more convenient access to the learning resource, since you can receive the lessons in your free time according to your schedule and neednât to ask for leave if you are ill,. You (I am shortening the sentences because it makes things clearer and adds a bit of emphasis) can receive your lessons anywhere, - in parks, in subway trains or in a cafÃ©, even on a beach. Whatâs more, you neednât waste several hours on the road to the classroom since with e-learning itâs on your fingertips. The e-learning method also can greatly benefit the disabled person who canât easily go to university to study. thus Thus e-learning gives more people the opportunity to gain knowledge.>>

Another advantage Internet-based e-learning learning has over the traditional learning is that e-learning it can bring the students into a colorful multimedia virtual world instead of burying them into piles of dull books. With computers, learning can be more fun and effective. The storage of a computer can make it possible to store millions of books into one chip while a normal classroom canât do this. The Internet offers resources incomparable of to those any traditional schools can offer.>>

I have a bit of a problem with this point. No matter in what form the information is fed to the students, the amount of material they have to study remains the same. Whatâs more, if the information is in a book you can vaguely estimate how much you have to study by the simple process of seeing how fat the book is [:;].

What you may argue is that the computer makes it easier to find relevant portions of information, instead of the students having to search through a hundred books for a single paragraph.>>

Whatâs more, e-learning also can make life easier for a teacher. In the traditional school, a teacher usually stands on the platform over for hours and this usually results in physical tiredness. After class, a teacher corrects the studentsâ assignments one by one, leaning by on the desk. After years of hard work a severe neck-ache is usually developed. Also in the traditional class much of the time is wasted on handing in and handing out of the assignments and test papers. All these are both time consuming and physically challenging. With Internet-based e-learning, many assignments can be corrected by computers, a teacher can sit comfortably in a sofa instead of standing on the platform and thereâs no need of handing assignments in or out. Everything is just a click away. Besides making a studentâs studying more interesting, e-learning also eases the teacherâs heavy work and brings them more freedom and gives them more time to enjoy lives.>>

Sorry to say I canât accept your reasoning here. It is much more tiring to sit for hours in front of the computer than to stand and interact directly with other people for the same period of time. Taking classes may be easier via the Internet, but when it comes to checking, I think it would be much better if teachers got to check handwritten sheets rather than brightly glaring screens. Staring too long at the computer screen is really bad for the eyes â I should know, mine are suffering.

Since e-learning has so much many advantages outweighing over traditional learning, I strongly recommend e-learning method.>> over the traditional face-to-face methods.>>

âMuchâ is used for uncountable nouns, while advantages are certainly countable. So youâll have to change to âmanyâ, Iâm afraid. And I think the usage âadvantages outweighingâ¦â is incorrect. Iâm not sure about that mistake, though I am perfectly sure the change I have made would be accepted by any examiner.

Subsequent posters, please check if the usage of âoutweighingâ in the last sentence is correct or not, Iâm a bit confused.>>

So far, all I have done is to correct the grammar and point out a few weak links in your essay. (The thin lines, in case you couldn't make them out, are strikethroughs, indicating deletion.) I think you would do quite well if you submitted this. It doesnât need further decorations and frills.>>

Thanks for the chance to edit. As youâve probably guessed, I really love editing and relish any opportunity to indulge my skills in that field.>>

Hope I could help you â even if a little bit.>>

- Tearsofjoy.

Uncountable Sense	Countable Sense
Art is often called an imitation of life. Life is precious. He likes to eat pizza. Religion has been a powerful force in history. She has beautiful skin. Dr. Moulton is an expert in ancient Greek sculpture. We use only recycled paper in our office.	I read a book about the folk arts of Sweden. A cat has nine lives. How many pizzas should we order? Many religions are practiced in the United States. The hull of a kayak is made of animal skins. We have several sculptures in our home. Where are those important papers?

Search results for 'tag:Universities tag:Uncountable nouns' matching tags 'Universities' and 'Uncountable nouns'

Re: Article usage: proper noun and uncountable noun correspondence?

Re: creams and detergents

Mr. Miclawer,

Nouns only countable nouns can be either singular or plural. ... He had some ice cream on his face. He had an ice cream. mass. countable ...www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/dick/tta/wc/nouns.htm - 21k - Cached - Similar pages

http://au.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080425090142AAom2ui

Answers (4)

Re: About the word 'music'

Re: Articles (a, an)

Re: Articles (a, an)

Re: some questions including use of colon

"a little" or "a few"

Re: Could you please help me on this.

Re: duties

Re: Please help me to correct my composition

Nouns only countable nouns can be either singular or plural. ... He had some ice cream on
his face. He had an ice cream. mass. countable ...
www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/dick/tta/wc/nouns.htm - 21k - Cached - Similar pages