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2 Answers. “Stuff” is informal, especially when used as a de facto pronoun. “Stuffs” is normally used as a verb, not as a plural pronoun. “Thing” is a standard pronoun, so it can be used in both formal and informal writing.
“Staff” is a countable noun, though it’s a collective noun, which can cause some confusion. In American English, most collective nouns are considered a singular term, so use a singular verb.
Answer: The correct word is staff if you are referring to a group of people within an organisation. Pam Peters points out that the use of staff as a collective noun creates the need for a word to describe an individual member of staff.
In American English, the “staff” is assumed to be a unit, so the singular “does” is correct. In British usage, collective nouns like “staff” and “Parliament” are assumed to represent individuals and take the plural form of the verb such as “do.”
Advice is uncountable. we say a piece of advice (not ‘an advice’) and some advice (not ‘some advices’).
Countable nouns can be counted, e.g. an apple, two apples, three apples, etc. Uncountable nouns cannot be counted, e.g. air, rice, water, etc. When you learn a new noun, you should check if it is countable or uncountable and note how it is used in a sentence.
the word ‘coffee’ is uncountable. It is a singular noun with no article. However, if you say: ‘There are many different coffees for sale in that store’, you mean different types of coffee, so in this case it’s a plural noun, and therefore countable.
(uncountable) Cotton is a plant that produces a soft fiber also called cotton. This fiber is used to make fabric. My shirt is made of cotton.
Some Nouns Can Function As Either For instance, cheese is usually an uncountable noun, but you can use it as a countable noun if you are referring to varieties of cheese.
Uncountable nouns refer to objects or ideas that cannot be counted. Examples are: rice, sand, milk, honey, honesty, integrity etc. Uncountable nouns cannot be used with numbers.
Now, peas and stones are countable nouns, so they can take both singular and plural forms, but as water is an uncountable noun it doesn’t alter, so we have one glass of water or two glasses of water.
The word ‘onion’ is a countable noun because : It can be counted as one onion, two onions, three onions etc. It has a plural form (onions)
“Carrot” is a countable noun, as in one carrot, a carrot, the carrot, six carrots, no carrots, blue carrots, many carrots, etc.
Pizza is both countable and uncountable. If you are talking about the food then it’s uncountable as in I ordered pizza for dinner. You could very well say that you ate a pizza or ordered a pizza(meaning one pizza). But when you are talking about the kind of pizza in general, it’s uncountable.
Lettuce is countable if it is an entire head of lettuce. It is uncountable otherwise (e.g. there is some lettuce in this salad) The same is true with cake and onion. If you have a whole one, it is ‘a’. If it is cut into pieces, it becomes some.
The noun mashed potato can be countable or uncountable. In more general, commonly used, contexts, the plural form will also be mashed potato. However, in more specific contexts, the plural form can also be mashed potatoes e.g. in reference to various types of mashed potatoes or a collection of mashed potatoes.
A vegetable is a countable noun because they are able to be counted and have a plural form, such as cat/cats, suitcase/suitcases, pencil/pencils, fruit/fruits and vegetable/vegetables.
Nouns which can be both countable and uncountable
an egg | egg |
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countable | uncountable |
Mashed potato (British English), mashed potatoes (American and Canadian English) or mashed taters, colloquially known as mash (British English), is a dish made by mashing boiled potatoes, usually with added milk, butter, salt and pepper.
They are low in fat, high in potassium and only have 150 calories per potato/serving. These are not empty calories either. There’s actual great vitamins and nutrients in those calories. So, nutrition and calorie-wise, potatoes are great to add to your diet.
Potatoes are vegetables. And mashed potatoes can count as vegetables as long as they are homemade. For example, if you eat them mashed with lots of butter, bacon, cheese, etc., those ingredients will make mashed potatoes tastier but not healthier. However, there are other ways to eat mashed potatoes.
yes