Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[Jerry Chen]

Hello,

Do most native speakers of English view the word "E-mail" as a countable noun or an uncountable one?

Which is correct?

I got many e-mails.

I got much e-mail.

Thanks for your help!!

[damon@English24/7]

E-mail is a fairly new word so the usage is a little inconsistent. I think it is most commonly used as a non-count noun, but we would use "a lot" rather than "much/many." For example: "I received a lot of e-mail yesterday." Substituting "e-mails" seems totally unnatural. However, I think that some people, or in some cases, e-mail is used as a countable noun like "I have been receiving e-mails all morning" (non-count would be fine in this example, as well).

Additionally, we don`t use spam as a count noun.

Finally, MS-Word has always treated "email" as wrong, but I personally prefer it to "e-mail" or "E-mail." There is no hyphen in the words electronic mail so why should there be in the abbreviation. What are your opinions on how to use email? Can anyone authoritatively respond to this yet?

[Mister Micawber]

.
As you can imagine, all permutations get plenty of hits on Google. I will not hold my breath for any 'authoritative' statement in my lifetime. I too use email, because it is easy to type-- so maybe we can set the fashion ourselves, Damon.
.
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"I really do not know that anything has ever been more exciting than diagramming sentences." � Gertrude Stein
...............
Canadian-American who teaches English for a living at Mr Micawber's

[CP]

From what I have seen, I think people refer to e-mail as a countable noun when they are thinking of the individual messages. "Today I received four e-mails trying to sell me real estate." In this way, the term is the equivalent of "letter."

Otherwise, they seem to refer to e-mail as a mass noun. "I get so much e-mail, I can't get any work done." In this way, the term is the same as it has always been when it was just "mail."
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You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb

[damon@English24/7]

Email it is, then. I`ll start fixing all those mistaken Wikipedia entries.

CP, that is a well though-out answer.

[CP]

The French are gonna flip! "Email" is "enamel" in French. I don't know if the international community can withstand any sneering by the French in this day and age . . . .
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You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb

[redset]

[beancurdturtle]

[erik19283]

[CP]

Forgive me for my lame little joke. I shall explain.

The French are notorious for not wanting their language "violated" by adding foreign words -- just the opposite of English -- although some have crept in, like "le weekend." At the moment, for example, the French refuse to use "computer" for "computer," preferring the very French but clumsy "l'ordinateur."

Now, if the international community should "steal" a perfectly good French word like "email" and thus further violate the language, can't you just imagine the scandal -- le scandale! -- that it would cause? I mean, the French believe that theirs is literally the language of the angels, so we should not be messing with it. N'est-ce pas?
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You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb

[lotus]

Hi,

Though neither definitive nor authoritative, this article (though old) indicates a trend toward e-mail. My personal experience is that email is more common, especially for the reason pointed out by Mr. Micawber.

http://alt-usage-english.org/big_faq.html#fxhowdoy
note the French definition noted by CP

A quick search in Google found:

Results 1 - 10 of about 11,260,000,000 for e-mail
Results 1 - 10 of about 6,640,000,000 for email

I think in most correspondences (not found on the internet), email would be more common.


--lotus

[andale]

There was an entry about this in Garner's Usage Tip of the Day in April this year. Here's what it said: