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A + uncountable noun? Just came across this usage for the first time.

"Cheddar is a kind of cheese" can be shortened to "cheddar is a cheese."

Do you use this rule in real life? How common and practical is this usage? Is it the same rule with "I'd like 2 coffees"? So how do I know which uncountable noun can be used with 'a/an' too?

Other examples are:

Maple is a wood. = Maple is a kind of wood.

Spaghetti is a food. = Spaghetti is a kind of food.

Thank you

11 feb. 2019 10:40
Antwoorden · 5
2
1. Yes. This is normal: Cheddar is a hard cheese from England. Lapsang Souchong is a smoked tea from China. In these cases, we interpret 'cheese' and 'tea' to mean 'a specific variety of cheese/tea'. This makes these nouns grammatically countable. 2. No, it's not the same as 'I'd like two coffees'. If you say 'I'd like two coffees', this means two cups of coffee ( not types of coffee). 3. Any noun describing a substance could probably have a countable form meaning 'type of'.
11 februari 2019
1
In this learner's dictionary, "cheese" is defined as a variable noun, which means that it is both countable and uncountable, depending on context. https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/cheese Many physical materials are variable nouns, like "wood". It is less common for abstract nouns to be used countably e.g. love, jealousy. The answer is to check a good learner's dictionary and example sentences.
11 februari 2019
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