Timeline for Term for Uncountable Nouns, Mass Nouns which are sometimes countable
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| Sep 21, 2016 at 20:27 | comment | added | user193445 | @OC2PS, there are certainly "blocks of cheese" but there are also individual, distinct, countable cheeses. Check out this definition from the Oxford Dictionaries website: [COUNT NOUN] A complete cake of cheese with its rind. The following example sentence is also included: ‘the cheeses are trimmed and wrapped in sterilized muslin’. (The notation "COUNT NOUN" is part of the dictionary definition; I didn't add it.) | |
| Sep 21, 2016 at 20:19 | comment | added | OC2PS | @prester-john Please see "blocks of cheese" in my answer. | |
| Sep 21, 2016 at 16:23 | comment | added | user193445 | @SaraCosta is correct with respect to the analogy of an egg. Cheese can be used as a countable noun, and not simply as a mass noun referring to kinds or types of cheese. Wikipedia says of Pont-l'Évêque cheese: "Pont-l'Évêque is ... square in shape usually at around 10 cm (3.9 in) square and around 3 cm (1.2 in) high, weighing 400 grams (14 oz)." If I buy one of those little squares, I buy "a cheese". If I buy three of them, I buy three cheeses. (Note that they are all of the same type.) If I also have the seller slice a wedge from a large Gouda, I buy some cheese, not a (whole) cheese. | |
| Jun 9, 2013 at 11:44 | comment | added | TrevorD | No it's not. You wouldn't say four-chesses pizza. You're using cheese in the singular and as an adjective: I'm using it as a plural noun. (You haven't answered my question about the source of your definition.) | |
| Jun 9, 2013 at 1:01 | history | edited | OC2PS | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Jun 9, 2013 at 0:54 | comment | added | OC2PS | @TrevorD Your example is the same as mine - local cheeses is analogous to four cheese. | |
| Jun 8, 2013 at 23:32 | comment | added | TrevorD | -1 As @JohnLawler said in a previous comment Virtually all mass nouns can be used as if they were count nouns under certain circumstances. Your definition appears to be quoting from somewhere: would you please provide the source? | |
| Jun 8, 2013 at 23:28 | comment | added | TrevorD | Cheese can be a countable noun, e.g. There is a good selection of local cheeses in the local cheese shop. - see Longman. | |
| Jun 8, 2013 at 17:44 | history | answered | OC2PS | CC BY-SA 3.0 |