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I'm having trouble articulating what it is I'm looking for, so I'll start with an example.

Candy is delicious.
Candies are delicious.

Vegetables are delicious.

Fruit is delicious.

So, I guess, when referring to a general category or group of things, are there any rules for which ones become plural, which remain singular, and which can be expressed either way?

I was trying to explain to a student why you'd say "prepositions are challenging to learn", and not, "preposition is challenging to learn", and I've come up short.

Any insight would be welcome!

Barmar
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jjohb
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    Countable and uncountable nouns –  Dec 30 '15 at 19:42
  • @JackGraveney: It almost seems like your comment plus your suggested edit is an answer, or at least the beginnings of one. – cobaltduck Dec 30 '15 at 20:21
  • @cobaltduck Didn't see much point in answering when seemingly all the information desired was provided in the link. It is also quite likely that this is a duplicate of some other question on the site, just in a very broad form. –  Dec 30 '15 at 20:25
  • Some nouns can be put in bijection with the set of natural numbers, while others are too large! Woo, I'm such a riot I crack myself up. – Matt Samuel Dec 31 '15 at 07:41
  • I guess that should've been obvious... thank you for the link! – jjohb Dec 31 '15 at 19:30
  • I doubt there are any rules for this, it mostly just comes from historical custom. – Barmar Jan 01 '16 at 03:13
  • @JackGraveney That's a great resource I found myself a few days ago when researching abstract nouns to answer an E.L.L. question about whether "a doubt" is or is not correct. I don't think quite all of the information is there though, just most of it and I do encourage an answer based on it. Sometimes it's difficult for even us to tell. The related question 'Is the term "walking across a tarmac" grammatically correct?' had some interesting discussion among us for this reason. Hmm... – Tonepoet Jan 01 '16 at 11:02
  • Part of the difference is whether the focus is on the concept/collective, e.g. candy, or (the elements in) the collection, e.g. candies. – Lawrence Mar 31 '16 at 09:05
  • @Lawrence I doubt whether the OP is still around, but you could vote to reopen the older question which I linked above. It's the perfect question, and it has received a very good answer. Why, oh why did some users think it lacked research is beyond me. – Mari-Lou A Mar 31 '16 at 09:30
  • Hi @Mari-LouA, I've taken a look at that question. I suppose the lack of research part is due to having just a single reference in the lengthy question. By the OP's own admission, the reference is misquoted and the misquote isn't easily fixable while maintaining the question's flow. Given deadrat's answer, what do you think of editing the question to primarily address the examples listed, rather than ask for a general rule? The request for a general rule can remain as a secondary question (deadrat briefly answered it in the negative). – Lawrence Mar 31 '16 at 12:38
  • @Lawrence I would be reluctant to delete the error myself, besides deadrat's answer refers to that mistake: Cakes is the plural of cake. It never means pieces of cake: and the fact the OP misquoted and realized her error is seen in the comments. I think it's a good, clear, well thought out question; the examples are helpful (for learners) and the OP's need to understand and find a solution is one shared by many non-native speakers. The research btw is seen by those very examples she cites. – Mari-Lou A Mar 31 '16 at 13:42
  • Ok @Mari-LouA, I'll cast a reopen vote. – Lawrence Mar 31 '16 at 14:24

1 Answers1

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There are things that you can count as one apple and two apples, and there are things that you don't count. Normally you don't say one milk or two milks.

You say some milk or a cup/bottle of milk. All liquids are uncountable, as well as chemical substances as salt, metals as gold and silver, abstract terms as love, hate. In case of doubt dictionaries give information. Some nouns can be used as uncountables and countables.

The Internet has a lot of web-sites on this grammar point.

rogermue
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