Native English speakers never have to worry about one of our grammar quirks: uncountable noun (also called plural noun). These are words like sand or butter does not have a regular plural form, does not use indefinite articles such as One or ONE, and take the singular verb (“melting butter”; “sand blowing in his face”). It means that this type of word is theoretically uncountable; although sand is made up of many small parts, when we say “sand” as well as when we say “water”, we mean an uncountable mass (unlike saying soil or Snowflakes). They are modified by words like than, much, most ofAnd some. For example, you can’t say “a little sand” or “I need a lot of water”. A French person will say “I need a haircut,” which sounds funny but makes sense. English grammar is not defined by logic.
Uncountable nouns, or ‘common nouns’, are words that do not have a regular plural form, have no indefinite article, and are used with singular verbs—for example, “melting butter. “
Common nouns are different from zero plural nouns, where the plural is the same as the singular: deer, sheep, salmon, shrimp, baby, batch, Japanese And Vietnamese.
Here are a few examples of common nouns:
air, equipment, dust, hair, traffic, milk, furniture, clapping, baseball, photography, harm
These words do not have the traditional plural -S or -es ends—except sometimes. Some common nouns have the same plural as tuxedoes: only given on special occasions. Their very uncanny conveys an immediate understanding that something different is being represented—often something more symbolic or poetic:
March water
The sands of Iwo Jima
Old snow
Hercules’ merit
blue sky
One of the most famous examples of this particular literary plural is bread and fish. The actual line from the 1611 King James Bible is:
They said, Here we have only five loaves and two fish.
Indeed, many instances of the plural fish rendered as fish in this translation of the Bible, as well as in the Geneva Bible of 1599. These instances reflect the literal translation of the plural (not the common noun) of fish in Greek. Too much water also often used as the plural of Water in the first English editions of the Bible.
fish can also be used when discussing specific types or species of fish, such as in “all the fish of the sea.”
The plural of mass nouns is also sometimes seen in academic language; it gives a formal tone to the article and draws attention through its difference from the standard or expected grammatical form, and allows a difference in principles:
“They will say that it is far from giving up the concept of man as such, these anthropologists simply reject seeing man as lacking or superfluous, but the idea of such a person is retained in the concept of man. concept of man as a dialectic.” —”Blumenberg and the rationality of rhetoric,” JM Fritzman, Rhetoric: Journal of the History of Rhetoric, Practice. 10, No. 4 (Fall 1992), pp. 423-435
“However, in the context of a survey, the complexity and form of such knowledge can be misread; at most, field researchers would simply be required to be sensitive. with questions of this kind.”—”New Agendas for Social Science Research “Mary E. John, Economic and Political Weekly, Practice. 43, No. 5 (2 – 8/2/2008), p. 36-38
“The term ‘Canadian literature’ by itself does not appear to include Canadian literatures but only the English-speaking portion of those literatures.” —”Canadian literature is comparative literature,: ED Blodgett, college English, Practice. 50, No. 8, Canadian Literature and Rhetoric (December 1988), pp. 904-911
“How can non-Western music be mentioned in the standard music survey without obscuring the main focus on Western art music?” Perspective Expanding Music Appreciation Class —Hao Huang, Music Education Magazine, Practice. 84, No. 2 (9-1997), pp. 29-33
Get used to this subtle plural convention, and you’ll have one more way to prove everything you learn.
Categories: Usage Notes
Source: vothisaucamau.edu.vn
