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I have a question about uncountable nouns in a sentence. For example, which of the following sentences is correct?

This is an important future work.

This is important future work.

It seems that according to the rules the second one is correct, but it looks somewhat absurd to me. Which one is correct?

p.s. This is not a duplicate question. It's not about the general rule. It's about the absurdity of using a rule.

Shayan
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  • If it's "future work", how can you talk about it in the present tense, with "this is"? Do you mean that it "exists now and isn't important, but will be important in the future" or that it "doesn't yet exist but when it does exist it will become important at some point in the future"? or something else? – Max Williams May 05 '16 at 11:21
  • It's common in scientific articles to use such a sentence. It almost means that it is a direction (or hint) for the next research. – Shayan May 05 '16 at 11:25
  • @Max: Suppose I have a job to do, and it's not done yet. I would call it future work. And it clearly exists now, so it is important future work. – Peter Shor May 05 '16 at 11:26
  • Work can be countable (in the sense of musical works or discrete pieces of work) but is more often non-count. Mass nouns don't take an article. – Andrew Leach May 05 '16 at 11:26
  • @Shayan i don't have a problem with the phrase "future work" - my issue was referring to it in the present tense. – Max Williams May 05 '16 at 12:23
  • @MaxWilliams Please see Peter's answer. – Shayan May 05 '16 at 14:15
  • In re: "it's not about the general rule, it's about the absurdity of using a rule [at all]", the top and accepted answer on the original question opens with "*Well, if you insist on the rule*...". – Dan Bron May 09 '16 at 18:18
  • I read it again. But found no relations! This question is about uncountable nouns and whether employing the rule in this situation is absurd or not. That answer is about being known or not or using a or not (when we have something like "their" or "no") – Shayan May 09 '16 at 18:52

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