TIP: Click on subject to list as thread! ANSI
echo: english_tutor
to: Alexander Koryagin
from: Anton Shepelev
date: 2023-10-05 21:10:00
subject: A piece of pie!

Alexander Koryagin:

AK> I learned recently that an English pie can be countable
AK> and uncountable.

Absolutely.

AK> I understand uncountable ice cream, but I don't
AK> understand uncountable pie. ;-)

In English, they are the same.  Both `cream' and `pie' can
denote the substance, rather than the thing it constitutes.
In /Danse Macabre/ Steven Kings quotes an old radio show
where the jealous dentist locked an adulterer in his dental
chair  and "let out some of lover-boy". Yikes! but
uncountable.

For more pleasant example, heed Rosemary Clooney sing "I will
give you candy!" in /Come on a-My House/.

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* Origin: nntp://news.fidonet.fi (2:221/6.0)

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