pleasures

Question

Dear teachers,Are there other words like pleasures in English that can be used either in the singular or plural and still remain uncountable? How would they be used in a sentence? Should the singular and plural forms be used in different contexts?e.g. we say “the pleasures of reading” but can we say the “pleasure of reading”?How would say "les plaisirs de la table" in English?Many thanks,Hela

Welkins2139 · Accepted Answer

enjoyment, happiness....

The word " pleasure " can be either countable or noncountable "

Hela · Answer

Isn't the word "pleasure" uncountable whether it is in the singular or plural? We can't say 1 pleasure, 2 pleasures..., can we?

Isn't like "people" a plural uncountable noun?

But "hapiness" can't be used in the plural, can it? What about "enjoyment"?

See you!

Marius Hancu · Answer

Hela How would say "les plaisirs de la table" in English?

the closest I can remember for now is:
pleasures of the palate
http://www.saintlouisartfair.com/pleasures_of_palette.htm

MrPedantic · Answer

Hela
Are there other words like pleasures in English that can be used either in the singular or plural and still remain uncountable?

How would they be used in a sentence? Should the singular and plural forms be used in different contexts?

e.g. we say “the pleasures of reading” but can we say the “pleasure of reading”?

I would take "the pleasures of reading" to mean either "the different kinds of pleasure that are associated with reading", or "individual experiences of pleasure during reading", depending on the context. This countable use of "pleasure" is well established.

As for other words of this kind, I would tentatively say that the most common environments for "countable-ized non-countables" are probably a) specialist language b) literature.

So you might come across "behaviours" for "different kinds of behaviour" in the context of the social sciences, for instance; or "wearinesses" for "different kinds of weariness" in St Augustine's confessions:

1. And thus I have reflected upon the wearinesses of my sins.

But I'm not sure it's possible to construct a rule that would apply to all possible cases; though often the change from "non-countable X" to "countable Xs" does seem to relate to a change from "X in general" to "instances of X".

(The problem is that the more unusual cases tend to look/sound odd, outside a specialist or literary context, unless the reader/listener knows that it isn't a mistake!)

MrP

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