affection, affections------uncountable or countable? When I look into the dictionary about "affection", it says it's "uncountable". However one of the sample sentence shows that " Africa has always

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affection, affections------uncountable or countable? When I look into the dictionary about "affection", it says it's "uncountable". However one of the sample sentence shows that " Africa has always had a special place in my affections." How can I distinguish to put "affection" and "affections" into sentences? When I write " Many people have affection for your country.", is it all right?

Jun 17, 2017 12:33 AM

Answers · 6

1. In general, it is singular and uncountable, but the sentence you reference is correct. It is a formal and somewhat literary style. In everyday speech: Africa has a special place in my heart. 2. Many people have affection for your country. Yes, that is a good sentence.

June 17, 2017

Hi! Here the word "affections" is used to to refer to one of the things that the speaker likes/ is passionate about. The sentence means: "Africa has always been IN THE LIST OF/ONE OF the things I'm passionate about" Here's another example: Traveling is one of my loves. In this example you can see the word "love" which is uncountable being treated as a countable word because the sentence means: "Traveling is IN THE LIST OF/ONE OF the things I love."

June 17, 2017

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