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food & foods

Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 4:16 pm
by arzgol
Hi,

I'm a little bit confused with the word "food'' sometimes it is singulare and sometimes plural like junk foods. Is there any rule to help us understand how to use it.

It is easy to prepare food if you use a foodprocessor.
She talked about a food.
She prepared an Indian food.

Thank you in advance.

Re: food & foods

Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2011 1:08 am
by TutorVanessa
Food is both plural and singular.

There is a group of words in the English language that are "uncountable" - in order to count them, you have to use a "counter". Food is one of them. Water, juice, wood, air are others.

In order to count these things (and make them singular or plural), they either have to be grouped into some countable "container" (baskets of food, glasses of water or juice, canisters of compressed air etc.), or you can use the words "some", "much" to describe them.

The way to find uncountable nouns is to see if you can "count" them without any other "container" between the number and the item:

"One cake"
"Two Cakes" - this word is countable

"One wood"
"Two woods" - not really. It would be better to say "One piece of wood". This word is uncountable.

"Foods" can be used when referring to different kinds of things, but it is a much less common usage.

Does this help?

__________________________________________
English Tutor for ESL Students in Victoria BC
Your source for language and academic help.

Re: food & foods

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2011 6:57 am
by angelay
I agree, food can be use both in singular and plural form. Because when we say 'food' it is a group, it consists of more than two things.

Re: food & foods

Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2011 6:46 am
by sweethuman
Mostly used to consider it as plural (Many eatable things)

Re: food & foods

Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2012 5:15 am
by linakhan
angelay wrote:I agree, food can be use both in singular and plural form. Because when we say 'food' it is a group, it consists of more than two things.
it is a very interesting logic. is food means ingredients . what is the difference between food in dish :prof:

Re: food & foods

Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 10:06 am
by karoleq
ryancorn wrote:
angelay wrote:Las Vegas Restaurant Deals


I agree, food can be use both in singular and plural form. Because when we say 'food' it is a group, it consists of more than two things.
Actually, I think I usually hear it in a singular form.
Also I though the same. But don't you think that "food" in form of dish is plural? Because it consists of many "foods" :P

Re: food & foods

Posted: Fri Jun 07, 2013 1:10 pm
by baklazanek
So,both forms are correct? :-?

Re: food & foods

Posted: Tue Sep 03, 2013 7:11 pm
by polish
And why you are dissatisfied with this?

Re: food & foods

Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 8:38 pm
by javasen
Yes, both forms are correct - depending on the context of the sentence.

Re: food & foods

Posted: Sun Sep 08, 2013 7:15 am
by lizapol
I will write my doubt here, since is similar: it is regarding the plural and the singular of the noun.
So I mean the noun "fish" - did I read that it is uncountable, whether it has the plural? I can see sometimes the word " fishes" in the text - whether it is the correct plural from the word "fish", whether it doesn't have plural form?

Re: food & foods

Posted: Fri Jan 03, 2014 10:13 am
by marisssa
According to my native speaker you can use the form "fishes" only if you mean 2 (or more) different species of fish.

The only fishes that I caught last week were salmon and sardine.
I ate 6 fish for dinner.

{-;

Re: food & foods

Posted: Sun May 04, 2014 9:32 am
by hellokitty
Thanks for explaining the difference. Now I understand :)

Re: food & foods

Posted: Tue Nov 04, 2014 10:15 pm
by Moodeer
Ye i think both are fine.