2

According to the Oxford Learner's Dictionary definition for vaccine:

[countable, uncountable]
​a substance that is put into the blood and that protects the body from a disease

  • a measles vaccine
  • There is no vaccine against HIV infection.

I am confused about the description in the OALD. It said that "vaccine" is uncountable sometimes. When is vaccine used this way?

Improve this question
4
  • 2
    You don't say "we received 5000 vaccines," you say "we received 5000 doses of vaccine"; "5000 vaccines" would mean 5000 different types of vaccine. This is a clue that this usage of vaccine is uncountable. Compare fruit. If you say "We have 5000 fruits in our store," (rather than "5000 pieces of fruit") it means 5000 different kinds of fruit.
    – Peter Shor
    Commented Oct 22, 2021 at 19:14
  • @PeterShor Great answer. But does "5000 pieces of fruit" mean "5000 pieces of the same kind of fruit"? I think most likely that it means different kinds of fruit. Because if you were talking about a single kind of fruit, you'd more likely be mentioning the name of the fruit: e.g., 5000 apples or 5000 pieces of apple. (In the latter example, though, you're probably not talking about whole apples.) That said, although "5000 vaccines" or "5000 fruits" is possible, I'd use other count nouns such as "dose" or "piece" when actually counting vaccines or fruits.
    – JK2
    Commented Oct 22, 2021 at 23:48
  • @JK2: no, they don't all have to be the same. But they don't all have to be different, like they would in "we sell 5000 fruits."
    – Peter Shor
    Commented Oct 23, 2021 at 0:10
  • "​a substance that is put into the blood" - That's a strange definition, vaccines aren't put into the blood.
    – nnnnnn
    Commented Oct 23, 2021 at 0:57

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
2

In the sentence

We have enough vaccine for everyone,

vaccine is uncountable. If it were countable, it would be vaccines. Compare

We have enough books for everyone.
We have enough coffee for everyone.

Using coffees and book sound strange in those sentences.

And people really do say "enough vaccine for everyone." See Google Ngrams.

Improve this answer
1
  • Good example sentence, though of course "You can stop pouring now.. We have enough coffees for everyone." is a reasonable example of a count usage. // 'Vaccine' in your example references the notional total amount of the substance available in the relevant region.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Oct 23, 2021 at 11:25
0

The information on yourdictionary.com may help in general, but the answer is "often".

It all depends on how you use it. I think an exhaustive list is outside the scope of this forum, but I'll add one.

e.g.

I wonder if I can get the vaccine yet?

From the link:

Both Countable and Uncountable
Can you think of any nouns that could work as countable or uncountable nouns depending on the circumstance? If you've ever been to Belgium, you might have sampled their delectable chocolate. With that in mind, take a look at these two examples:

Countable - Would you like a piece of chocolate?
Uncountable - Would you like some chocolate?

In the first sentence, it is implied that the person is offering a single > piece of chocolate. The noun "piece," in this case, is countable. In the second sentence, "some" isn't an amount that can be clearly counted. Let's check out a few more countable vs. uncountable noun examples.

Uncountable - Would you like some water?
Countable - Would you like a glass of water?
Uncountable - Do you want more rice?
Countable - Do you want another bowl of rice?
Uncountable - I'm here, but take your time coming down.
Countable - The last time I went to Ohio, it rained.

Improve this answer
3
  • It's similar with a lot of drugs and treatments. "The patient received electro-convulsive therapy", "The patient was prescribed thorazine". Likewise, "Doctors administered vaccine to the patients."
    – Stuart F
    Commented Oct 21, 2021 at 11:12
  • Can you give an example sentence that uses 'vaccine' as an uncountable? In @StuartF 's last example "Doctors administered vaccine to the patients." it soundsvery... infelicitous to me. I suppose some people might say it that way (I have a hard time imagining who though. it's OK, but the natural/idiomatic way to say it is 'They administered the vaccine.' Maybe it's a British thing? It's not said without 'the' in the US at least in this particular sentence.
    – Mitch
    Commented Oct 21, 2021 at 15:28
  • @Mitch That adding "the" sounds better has less to do with "vaccine" being a count noun in that usage. It's got more to do with the fact that more often than not, you need to specify the kind of vaccine being administered in the usage. So, I'd say even the version with "the" is an example sentence that uses 'vaccine' as an uncountable. And "Doctors administered the vaccines to the patients" sounds awful, unless you're talking about different kinds of vaccine.
    – JK2
    Commented Oct 23, 2021 at 0:36

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .