Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[nawee]

Hello,

I know this "countable-uncountable" question probably comes up a lot. I know that some nouns can be both countable and uncoutable. I think I'm ok with cake(s), pizza(s), tomato(es), etc. But I'm still a bit confused with some nouns.

I have always thought that "sausage" is countable because you can count individual pieces of sausages. I only found out that "sausage" can also be uncountable when I checked with a dictionary yesterday. In which context is sausage uncountable?

And I have always thought of "ham" as uncountable. Again I was surprised when I found that it could be both. So if we visualise the whole leg of ham, it is countable (similar to "cake")?

Thank you.

Nawee

[pugachevV]

Sometimes when you are talking about large quantities of a countable noun it becomes uncountable.
Three fishes - three tons of fish, for example.
(Lots of people would also say three fish)
Three sausages - three tons of sausage.
BUT to me, three tons of sausages, sounds perfectly OK.
Three hams - three tons of ham. In the case of three tons of ham, however, it is not specified that the hams are whole. They could be in little plastic packages of ham slices.

This is one of those little problems with the language, that English speakers don't really bother about too much in everyday conversation.
Those of you who have never been to a country where English is spoken should be prepared, when you do go, to be surprised at the cavalier treatment it is given by the locals.