This is a sugar.

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Although table sugar is a countable noun still no indefinite article, ‘a’ or ‘an’, is used. We don’t say: This is a sugar. Why is so? Please guide me. Thanks.

2

Table sugar is not a countable noun. The cubes or spoonfuls are what is countable.

3

Thanks, Beees. Why isn’t table sugar countable as a whole when its constituents - sugar cubes - are countable?

4

Try counting the individual granules and see how well you get on!

5

Not an impossible task! I would do it if it’s a bet. :slight_smile:

6

Okay - take one cup of sugar and find out how many individual granules there are.
Then add boiling water until they dissolve and evaporate the liquid off to turn the sugar back into granules.
Now count the granules again.
If you have exactly the same number, you win the bet.

7

Bees, I will venture to experiment with it if the wager is a handsome amount of money! :slight_smile:

8

You get to keep the sugar.

9

Then you’d be counting the granules of sugar, not the sugar (unless you define a sugar as a granule of sugar).
I guess it’s just impossible to count sugar. =)

10

Hi,

You don’t need to count the grains because sugar as well as salt and sand can all be countable when you refer to different types. Types of sugar can be - caster/granulated/demerara/brown/icing or whatever.

Alan

11

Thank you, Tort. I don’t understand this. Why sugar cannot be a countable noun when it is made up of constituents which are countable. Could you please make some analogy?

Could you please explain your signature: “Utterance in a context of violence can lose its significance as an appeal to reason and become part of an instrument of force”? When someone is violent to me and hurting me I make an utterance. It won’t be an appeal to any kind of reason. It would just be, perhaps, an involuntary action.

Thanks, Alan. That would mean non-countable nouns could be countable in some particular context. Suppose, a teacher says, “This is a salt”. The teacher here is specifying that it’s a particular kind of salt. When the teacher says, “This is salt”. The teacher is merely confirming that it’s salt not sugar. Right? How a noun function could affect the meaning of the sentence, right?

Please guide me. Thanks.

12

Sure bet. Let’s draw an analogy. Take bread for instance - you can count loafs of bread, slices of bread, crumbs of bread, but you cannot count bread, can you? (unless you refer to different types of bread)
Same with sugar:

A bag of sugar = a loaf of bread
A teaspoon of sugar = a slice of bread
A grain of sugar = a crumb of bread.

Hope that makes sense

But, as Alan has explained, you can count sugar/bread if you’re considering different types of sugar/bread.

Such utterance is commonly referred to as “unprotected speech” in law. If I have piqued your curiosity so much, then google “unprotected speech” and learn more about the concept.

13

Yes,

I can say ‘breads’.

Alan

14

Thanks, Tort, Alan.

Could you please confirm if my reasoning works?

15

Hi Alan, BZ, Torsten and Everybody

I send you a link, it’s a very moving video. It’s unique. Very sad and moving but … I can’t find words.

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Kati Svaby