Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[seoa]

Hello I have a question of the word "tissue"
An organ is a group of tissues capable to perform some special function, as, for example, the heart, the liver, or the lungs.

In this sentence, are tissues plural? I found a dictionary tissue is uncountable noun..
so how that sentence correct?

[SimpleEnglishBlogger]

Some nouns are countable and uncountable.

"Pizza" is uncountable but you can eat 5 pizzas.
"Fish" is uncountable but you can eat 3 fish. (Plural of fish is the same as the singular.)

When you are talking about the substance itself, you use the singular. "I ate pizza for lunch" tells you what I ate but not how much. "I ate a pizza for lunch" tells you that I ate ONE whole pizza. Not 2 slices, not 5, but all of them.

We use the plural when we talk about the whole thing as one unit.

So in your example, the group of tissues refers to many whole tissues that are grouped together.


Another case where we use plurals for uncountable nouns is the following:

Cheese is uncountable but you could also say something like:

"We sell only the best cheeses in the world!"

Coffee is uncountable but you can go to a restaurant and ask the waiter for "2 coffees, please".

So what is happening here?

Well, in these examples, there is a word that is omitted. In the coffee example, that word might be "cups". The real sentence is "2 cups of coffee please" but is shortened to "2 coffees please".

For the cheese, the word would be "types" or "varieties" or "brands". "We sell only the best varieties of cheese in the world!" is shortened to "best cheeses".

Notice how the plural from the omitted word is transferred to the uncountable noun.
_________________
Visit www.sloweasyenglish.com for material to help you with your listening skills!

All of the videos are in SLOW and EASY ENGLISH so they are easy to understand and will help you improve your listening until you can watch regular movies and TV!