surprise, countable or uncountable?

Question

'Whatever are you doing up here Bill?' asked the vicar in surprise.
Above sentence seems that surprise is like a uncountable noun.

You see, I was hoping to give you a surprise.
This sentence seems that surprise is a countable noun.

I am so confused, please help me to understand, thank you very much.

AlpheccaStars · Accepted Answer

john liaoI am so confused, please help me to understand, thank you very much.

What is your confusion? Some nouns can be either countable and uncountable, depending on the sentence and meaning.

GPY · Answer

There is no problem with "surprise" being both countable and uncountable in different contexts. Many nouns can be.

"in surprise", like various other "preposition + noun" combinations, is largely idiomatic. Sometimes nouns that are "always" countable can appear to be used uncountably in such combinations. For example "answer" in "in answer to your question", or "hand" in "I don't have it to hand". It can be debatable (in my opinion) whether these are genuine uncountable uses of the nouns. However, "surprise" can be used uncountably in non-idiomatic situations too, as in "Your biggest weapon is surprise", for example. Of course, "surprise" can be used countably too, as in your example.

Benny P · Answer

Hi John, this might help you out:

'Whatever are you doing up here Bill?' asked the vicar in surprise. >>> Surprise here is like an emotion. Example:
"Are you surprised? I baked this cake by myself."

"You see, I was hoping to give you a surprise." >>> This sentence probably means "surprise" as a gift or present.

Anonymous · Answer

l was hoping to give you a surprise is uncountable sentence because it cannot be used with a or an...

surprise, countable or uncountable?

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