Tuesday, June 26, 2018

How to decide the countability of 'performance'



Performance



  1. [uncountable, countable] how well or badly you do something; how well or badly something works


the country’s economic performance


He criticized the recent poor performance of the company.


Profits continue to grow, with strong performances in South America and the Far East.



Her academic performance has been inconsistent.



Some nouns can be classified as both uncountable and countable. The above is an example taken from the Oxford dictionary.


Without a plural marker or an indefinite article, sometimes it's a bit difficult for me to decide which category a noun like performance belongs with. I'm not sure if the categories could bring nuances to the intended meaning.


Would a native speaker automatically classify them into different noun categories, or never pay attention to such dichotomy?




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