Sometimes in English I encounter words which are uncountable, while they may be countable in my native language causing some mistakes in my sentences, and I wonder why they are uncountable.
For example "software"; we look at any application, *a software (as it is used by software companies)
*I developed a software
*It is a software to edit pictures
Or "advice", it could be countable too, pointing to any useful sentence or point one could say:
*That was a good advice
*As a friendly advice
*There were many good advices in this story to learn
Or "information". Now, I can't remember, but you may count more such words, if you have a problem with them.
I know the following is grammatical in English:
- a piece of software
- a piece of advice
- a piece of information
but in these cases piece just looks redundant. One day, could "piece" be omitted, and these uncountable nouns become countable? Why are "advice" and "information" uncountable when in many Romance languages they are not?
I'd like some information about train times please.
Although 'information' is countable in many languages, it is uncountable in English. (British Council)
- Do you know words which were once uncountable but later become countable?
- I would like to understand why some nouns are uncountable in English while in other languages they are not.
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