Nombres incontables

1. 1. bread, cream, gold, paper, tea, beer, dust, ice, sand, water, cloth, gin, jam, soap, wine, coffee, glass, oil, stone, wood

[El grupo de los ‘nombres incontables’ está integrado por ‘nombres de sustancias,’]

1. 2. advice, experience, horror, pity beauty, fear, information relief courage, help, knowledge suspicion death, hope, mercy work

[‘nombres abstractos,’]

1. 3. baggage damage luggage shopping camping furniture parking weather

[y algunos otros (‘baggage,’ ‘camping’ …), que a veces son nombres contables en otras lenguas.]

2. I don’t want (any) advice or help. I want (some) information. He has had no experience in this sort of work. a bit of news, a grain of sand, a pot of jam, a cake of soap, a pane of glass, a sheet of paper, a drop of oil, a piece of advice.

[Los nombres incontables están siempre en singular y no admiten el artículo indeterminado. Los preceden ‘some,’ ‘any,’ ‘no,’ ‘a little’ etc. o nombres como ‘bit,’ ‘piece’, ‘slice’ etc. + ‘of.’]

3. hair (all the hair in one’s head)// one hair, two hairs. Her hair is black. Whenever she finds a grey hair she pulls it out. We drink beer, coffee, gin. We ask for a (cup of) coffee, a gin, two gins. We drink wine. We enjoy a good wine. We drink our wine from a glass / from glasses. We walk in a wood/woods. He had an exciting experience last week. He had some exciting experiences last week. He is looking for work. He is looking for a job. ‘works’ (solo plural) = ‘factory’ / = ‘moving parts of a machine’ Shakespeare’s complete works.

[Muchos de los nombres incluidos en los grupos de arriba pueden usarse en un sentido particular y son entonces contables. Pueden tomar ‘a’/’an’ en singular y utilizarse en plural.]

4. My children are a great help to me. A good map would be a help. It was a relief to sit down. He had a good knowledge of mathematics. a love of music. a hatred of violence. It’s a pity you weren’t here. It’s a shame. he wasn’t paid. It would be a pity to cut down these trees.

[Algunos nombre abstractos se emplean en un sentido particular con ‘a’/’an’: ‘a help,’ ‘a relief,’ ‘a knowledge of,’ ‘a dislike/dread/hatred/horror/love + of.’ ‘a mercy/pity/shame/wonder’ pueden usarse con ‘that-clauses’ introducidas por ‘it.’ ‘it + be + a pity/shame + infinitivo’ también es posible.]

5. There is a fear that he has been murdered. There are fears that he has been murdered. We have a suspicion that he has been murdered. Something arises a fear/fears, a hope/hopes, a suspicion/suspicions.

[‘a fear’/’fears’, ‘a hope’/’hopes,’ ‘a suspicion’/’suspicions’ pueden usarse con ‘that-clauses’ introducidas por ‘it.’]