Help me out with countability and uncounterbility!

Question

Hello. I know there are a lot of words in English both countable and uncountable. One is, for example, 'conversation.' I think 'conversation' means talking with someone so it is a verbal noun. But when is this word used as a countable word? You say 'make conversation', not 'make A conversation.' But you say 'have a conversation', not 'have conversation.' Is this idiomatic? Plus I don't know when the word 'material' is used as countable or uncountable. If you could tell me about those, I'd like you to give me some examples. And I hope someone would tell me the roughly general rule of words able to be used as both countable and uncountable. Thanks in advance.

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

AnonymousYou say 'make conversation', not 'make A conversation.' But you say 'have a conversation', not 'have conversation.' Is this idiomatic?

Yes, it's idiomatic to say 'make conversation' and 'have a conversation'.

Many, many nouns can be used both as countable and uncountable.

Anonymous'material' ... roughly general rule ...

Although the basic categories are 'countable' and 'uncountable', there is actually a range of possibilities between words that are always countable and words that are always uncountable. Many words occupy a position somewhere between these extremes, and they are used in both ways. One author suggests that there are four intermediate categories of countability between the two extremes, depending on which determiners are grammatical with the noun.

In general, countability has to do with boundedness. If the thing you refer to is bounded (individuated, like a solid object in space or an event in time), the noun is countable, or used as if it were countable. If the thing you refer to is unbounded (a mass, a substance, like a fluid or like an abstract concept), the noun is uncountable, or used as if it were uncountable.

'material' is generally substance, so it is uncountable, but each kind of specific material (wood, silk, steel, nylon, cotton, plastic, ...) is 'a material', i.e., countable.

CJ

Help me out with countability and uncounterbility!

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