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80% GOOD (5 votes)回答済み言語の質問
Vegetable vs Fruit, countable and uncountable nouns?

I was correcting an exercise with a student, and even if I knew that vegetable is countable, suddenly it came to my mind that " fruit" is uncountable.

Is them someone who could help me remember why vegetable, that is a generic name, is classified as countable? 

PS: Explore free learning materials for English: Learning class: Contractions — Zimbabwe Timeline — Difference between Mood Tense Voice — Indefinite Article

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AussieInBg profile picture AussieInBgMarch 2021
This is an excellent question!!!

For both ”fruit” and ”vegetable”, when we talk about types, e.g. apple, pear, potato, carrot and so on, we use both ”fruit” and ”vegetable” in plural.

As for the substance, we use ”fruit” in the singular to define the uncountable/substance form and ”vegetables” in the plural as the uncountable/substance form.

Why like this? Good question!!!

My speculative guess: a long time ago, a meal consisted of different types of vegetables - hence the plural form for the uncountable - and only perhaps one type of fruit such as apples - giving us the singular ”fruit” form.
Alimikado profile picture AlimikadoMay 2016
i can help you