Help!! Quick! teacher's countable noun question

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Zaynab Jalali

Help!! Quick! teacher's countable noun question

Post by Zaynab Jalali »

I am an English teacher. In an exercise on nouns that are both uncountable and countable, one of my students made this sentence.
Carrot is good for you. I checked the dictionary and saw that carrot is indeed classified U/C, both uncountable and countable. But this sentence just doesn't sound right. Can carrot be used in this way as an uncountable noun, or would we have to say "carrots" are good for you. I have about 12 hours before I have to turn in this exercise and don't want to seem like I've been stumped! Thanks for your help.
Z :roll: P.S. We are using "American" English.
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taunusjim

Post by taunusjim »

Hi,

I am a german student, so english is not my mother tongue. But I did a fast research and found this:

Some nouns can be countable and uncountable. For example, we say "some cheese" (uncountable) when we talk about an undefined quantity of cheese, but whole cheeses are also countable.
(taken from http://www.servling.com/grammar/someany1.htm)

It sounds reasonable to me. I hope this is a help for you. If not good luck for discussing with the pupils ;-)

Regards,
taunusjim

PS: I just saw that I am a little late. Sorry, better luck next time.
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