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Could someone help me with this sentence: "It was an awesome weather."

Is this sentence correct?

herisson
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Aman Goyal
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2 Answers2

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One wouldn't say It was an awesome weather but we had awesome weather or the weather was awesome. Another choice is it was awesome weather, especially as an answer to what kind of weather was it?

Weather is almost always a mass (or uncountable) noun. See, among others, Oxford dictionary.

An exception to this is in (in) all weathers, but this is now rare and could be considered a 'fixed expression'. In Moby Dick you'll find

It is by reason of this cosy blanketing of his body, that the whale is enabled to keep himself comfortable in all weathers, in all seas, times, and tides.

In 1998 a book called The Ocean: Our Future includes

Here, at all times of day and in all weathers, the sea and the maritime environment are a constant, pervasive and complex presence.

Today, most speakers do not use weather as a count noun, but usage determines what is grammatical; so stay tuned. Some people in the US these days use weather to mean an individual, particular instance of bad weather, as in We're going to have some weather tonight and Did you get any weather over there last night?, which is a usage that is kind of new to me. Still, this is uncountable, even though it refers to a single event.

Arm the good guys in America
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  • A usage doesn't have to be count to allow an indefinite article (though I'd agree that 'It was an awesome weather' sounds outlandish or ancient-poetic). But you can improve your answer by giving a reference demanding a non-count usage in normal English. – Edwin Ashworth Jun 28 '17 at 15:34
  • Your second example coincidentally uses 'a' with what I'd call a non-count usage (CGEL demand that count usages may always accept numerals). '[They] are a constant, pervasive and complex presence.' // */?'[They] are a 2 / 7 / 49 ... constant, pervasive and complex presences.' ... 'He has an excellent knowledge of Spanish.' would certainly be a non-count usage according to CGEL. – Edwin Ashworth Jun 30 '17 at 09:55
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You cannot have "a" weather, weather is not a countable noun.

You should say instead "The weather was awesome". You can say "It was awesome weather" but it is not the most idiomatic expression.

Ben
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  • I think there are plenty of contexts where it's quite reasonable to say different times or places have different weathers**. – FumbleFingers Jun 28 '17 at 13:41
  • @FumbleFingers But it is never acceptable to have "a weather" because, as the answer states, "weather" is not a countable noun. You can't divide weather into quanta. The most closely related term I can think of is mass noun, which is a noun such as "bread." You can have bread and you can have breads (kinds of bread), but you cannot have "a bread." – RShields Jun 28 '17 at 13:49
  • @RShields: There's nothing wrong with, say, They have a bread* in Italy that's completely different to anything we have traditionally baked in Britain. Such a construction is less likely with weather*, but it's certainly not grammatically impossible. – FumbleFingers Jun 28 '17 at 13:56
  • @FumbleFingers When you say "a bread" you're effectively rephrasing "a type of bread." "A type of weather" is so rarely used in English (and this example would feel awkward with that rephrasing) that you should assume it's wrong unless there is indication that it's right. – RShields Jun 28 '17 at 14:00
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    @RShields: If the OP had posted on English Language Learners I'd be quite happy to ignore marginal issues such as those I'm raising here. But this isn't ELL, so I make no concession to people who simply want to *learn* how English is usually used (as opposed to exploring what's possible). – FumbleFingers Jun 28 '17 at 14:10
  • @FF Possible inclusion of the indefinite article is insufficient to mark a usage as count: A subtle light flooded the clearing / *2 subtle lights flooded the clearing. Non-count. – Edwin Ashworth Jun 28 '17 at 15:13
  • In some circumstances, the indefinite article may be used with non-count nouns. There are many usages that seem to be intuitively better classed as mass rather than count (though notionality cannot be used as a test here [eg furniture; referent discrete]. These usages fail the 'no a/an' test for massness but pass the 'no numerals' test). Thus 'The state gave me a good education' but not 'The state gave me two good educations'. 'I have an understanding of the principles involved' but not 'I have two understandings ...'. 'I felt a strange warmth' but not 'They felt two strange warmths'. – Edwin Ashworth Jun 28 '17 at 15:18
  • @EdwinAshworth "The state gave me two good educations, one in music and one in revolution". "I have two understandings of the principles involved, both wrong", "They felt two strange warmths, one physical the other, emotional". Just because things usually appear singly, doesn't mean they are non-count. – Ben Jun 29 '17 at 19:25
  • @Ben Just because countification can take place doesn't mean that it always does. There has been a discussion on the use of indefinite articles with non-count usages in a previous thread. Try to countify 'The director spoke at the meeting today with an enormous enthusiasm.' – Edwin Ashworth Jun 29 '17 at 19:38
  • @EdwinAshworth "... as great as the enthusiasm with which he made love to his mistress, two enthusiasms born of his two great emotions, greed and lust." – Ben Jun 30 '17 at 07:20
  • @Ben You're not answering my request. Countness / non-countness applies to usages; it is not a fixed attribute of a given noun. 'Coffee' is count in 'I like a coffee [/ couple of coffees] before I leave for work' but non-count in 'Coffee is getting more expensive'. 'Enthusiasm' is non-count in 'The director spoke at the meeting today with an enormous enthusiasm.' – Edwin Ashworth Jun 30 '17 at 08:56
  • @EdwinAshworth what is your point? – Ben Jun 30 '17 at 09:32
  • @Ben 'Enthusiasm' is non-count in 'The director spoke at the meeting today with an enormous enthusiasm.' Sometimes, the indefinite article is used with a non-count usage. The test 'if an indefinite article precedes a singular-form [not 'singular', notice] noun, the usage is count' is imprecise. Huddleston and Pullum thus insist on 'if a noun accepts numerals in a given construction ['Two coffees, please'], that usage is count. Otherwise, non-count.' (paraphrasing). – Edwin Ashworth Jun 30 '17 at 09:42
  • @EdwinAshworth No. Every example of a noun with an article you have given me can also accept a numeral, as I have shown. – Ben Jun 30 '17 at 17:28
  • @Ben You can't say 'The director spoke at the meeting today with two enormous enthusiasms.' But you can say 'The director spoke at the meeting today with an enormous enthusiasm.'This particular usage is non-count. As is 'He has an excellent knowledge of French'. It is usages, not nouns, that are either count or non-count (though one or two seem quasi-count). Giving an example where a noun is used as a count noun doesn't prove that it must be count in a different example. – Edwin Ashworth Jun 30 '17 at 19:18
  • @edwinashworth. No, it is not usages. You are simply wrong about this. – Ben Jul 01 '17 at 12:01
  • @Ben Are you saying that an individual noun can't have both count and non-count usages? – Edwin Ashworth Jul 01 '17 at 20:34