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Thread: make a noise????

  1. #1
    cherry maltezidou's Avatar
    cherry maltezidou is offline Junior Member
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    Default make a noise????

    I saw in a coursebook "the baby is sleeping. Don't make a noise."
    Noise is an uncountable noun...why do we put an article?

  2. #2
    montfan is offline Newbie
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    Default Re: make a noise????

    I am not a teacher.

    "noise" can be both countable and uncountable.

    "don't make a noise"
    "there is too much noise"

    You can hear "a noise", and you can hear "two noises", but you can also say that a lot of noises together is noise.

    Both of these can be correct, though they have slightly different meanings. The first means do not make a single sound. The second means dont make many sounds.
    "the baby is sleeping. Don't make a noise."
    "the baby is sleeping. Don't make noise."

  3. #3
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    5jj
    5jj is offline Moderator
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    Default Re: make a noise????

    Quote Originally Posted by montfan View Post
    Both of these can be correct, though they have slightly different meanings. The first means do not make a single sound. The second means dont make many sounds.
    "the baby is sleeping. Don't make a noise."
    "the baby is sleeping. Don't make noise."
    The second sounds very strange to me. More natural to me would be:

    Keep the noise down.
    Try not to make too much noise.
    Rover_KE likes this.

  4. #4
    JMurray is offline Senior Member
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    Default Re: make a noise????

    "Don't make any noise"... or as my Mum used to say, "No noise now, not a peep".
    5jj likes this.

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