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Mafalda31
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Urgent!! countable uncountable confusion
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Hello to all!!
O.k we all know hair is uncountable. I have an excercise here and it is a multiple choice.
My hair a. look b. looks awful so I am going to wash a.it b.them.
The key to this excercise is b. a. So thawould go:
My hair looks awful so Iam going to wash it.
Why? Can anyone justify this to me?
I got confused. I mean yes, hair is uncountable but shouldn �t it be the other way round? i.e My hair look awful I am going to wash them? Like the police is uncountable but we say the police are,
Please help me I can seem to find any reason at all!
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23 Feb 2011
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Minka
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The key is wrong. As simple as that.
My hair looks awful so I am going to wash it.
Isn �t it funny hat with some hairs (in plural) you are almost bald and with hair as such you are not? You have more hair if you say hair than hairs? |
23 Feb 2011
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Mafalda31
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So it should be My hair look awful I am going to wash them? |
23 Feb 2011
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tulpen25
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The correct answer is definitely it.
Uncountable nouns are singular, you would never use "them" in that sentence.
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23 Feb 2011
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banska bystrica
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Hello,
the answer in the key is correct, it is similar to the noun "money"... Money is important. This is your money.
"hair" can be countable sometimes, if you mean, for example, three long hairs on your jumper... In that case you would say "You should shake them off"....
zuzana
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23 Feb 2011
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Mafalda31
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OK. What about the police? Is that an exception to the rule? Don �t we say the police are? so we use plural for the police. Ofcourse we don �t add �s but we do say the police - them. don �t we? |
23 Feb 2011
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joy2bill
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Actually we can say (a) �the police is" or (b) the police are". It all depends on whether you are thinking of the police as (a) a single organisation or (b) the group of individuals belonging to the organisation.
It depends on your point of view.
We never think of a person having a single strand of hair on their head and so there are too many to count . Consequently it becomes a solid group, therefore using a singular verb and the pronoun "it". You can say �hair � is in "there is a hair in my soup."
Cheers Joy |
23 Feb 2011
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Mafalda31
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OK. Got it. You see, that �s the difference between a native speaker and a non native one. For example in my language we never use strand of hair. That cleared all up now. We say hair meaning all the hair a person has in his head so we can use plural. Thank you!! |
23 Feb 2011
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tulpen25
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I have never heard (in BE at least) "The police is..." before. I think it sounds very strange. I would have said that you should always use "the police are"
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23 Feb 2011
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edrodmedina
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@Mafalda..all the hair a person has in his head or on his head? |
23 Feb 2011
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Minka
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Oops! I didn �t read thoroughly - OF COURSE it is b and a. So the key IS correct. So the sentence is as I wrote it.
The use is similar to that of other uncountable nouns:
The water is cold. I �m going to heat it. Time is precious. I want to use it wisely. The bread is dry. I �ll feed it to the chickens.
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23 Feb 2011
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