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ESL forum >
Ask for help > COUNTABLE OR UNCOUNTABLE???
COUNTABLE OR UNCOUNTABLE???
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sol_landia
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COUNTABLE OR UNCOUNTABLE???
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hELLO
I have a doubt
the words fruit, vegetable and animal are countable or uncountable??
Thanks in advance
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22 Jun 2010
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French Madame
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Hi!
Animal is countable: you can say "Find out 3 different animals on the picture!"
Fruit is uncountable : you have to say "one piece of fruit" "there�s no much fruit left"
But vegetable is special: you can say "There �s just a/2/many vegetables left in the fridge" but you can also say "much vegetables" when you �re talking about the category (= in general) ex "Chinese eat twice as much vegetables as the British and they�re in good health" (if you say many, here, it means many kinds of )
To sum up, if you�re showing flashcards to children for ex, you can say:
"This is an animal"
"This is fruit"
"This is a vegetable"
Hope it�s useful (and clear...)
Have a nice day! |
22 Jun 2010
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afteleg
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animal: countable
fruit/vegetable: countable and uncountable(depending on how you use them
Even when many different kinds are involved, we can still use �fruit�
as an uncountable noun, for example when offering a guest a plate with
slices of papaya, pineapple and melon, we say:
�Have some fruit.�(not fruits)
When emphasising
the different kinds of fruits, we usually use the countable noun, e.g.
in the sentence: �I love Malaysian fruits, especially, guavas,
mangosteens and papayas.�  There are a lot of fruits in the basket.
For more info, you can check out one of my printables about this topic. Thank you!
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22 Jun 2010
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xanadu1
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Use words in context and see related pictures to teach new words. Whenever you teach new vocabulary items have your students get some pictures and talk about them. And you can create a story to teach the new words. Your students will have fun and enjoy learning them.
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22 Jun 2010
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sp.watson
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I �m afraid I have to disagree, whilst fruit can be both countable and uncountable, depending on the context as clearly outlined by Afteleg, vegetable is always countable and so "much vegetables" is not correct in any context.
Of course vegetable can be used as an adjective, as in "is it animal or vegetable?"
Hope that helps. |
22 Jun 2010
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yanogator
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I agree with sp.watson. The fact that we see the word vegetables shows that it is countable.
Bruce |
22 Jun 2010
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sulekra
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I think if we imagine the thing as a substance basically anything can be uncountable, such as if you are making a vegetable smoothie but forget to put the lid on the blender, I would say �I have vegetable all over me �. Or if there �s an explosion at the zoo, I might say �oh gross, there �s animal all over me �.
Am I the only one who would say it like this? I �d be really interested if someone would confirm or refute this please:)
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22 Jun 2010
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Apodo
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LOL! I think I would be lost for words!
I might say it like that, though others would say I �ve got it all over me or stuff or other less polite terms. |
22 Jun 2010
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Zora
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Actually... as hilarious as sulekra �s examples are  - vegetable is being used as an adjective and as we know - adjectives are never plural or so I keep telling my students!! *mumbles something about not ever wanting to see "bigs" and "reds" and "smalls" again... lol
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22 Jun 2010
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Laly59
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I was consulting the dictionary and I could check that fruit has gender incontable and is a name not. The same is vegetables, not vegetable, this is an adjective.
Example: Fruit is good for the health/ vegetables are very nourishing.
I�m agree in the other cases that you have said.
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22 Jun 2010
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Pam_D
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I �m still laughing at sulekra �s post...but to answer Sol �s question, vegetable could be both depending on its function. As a noun: countable, as an adjective: uncountable.
PD: regarding the word animal, after sulekra �s post it would be really hard to tell you for sure  |
22 Jun 2010
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