accommodations

[Verona_82]

Hello,

I asked a student to look up the word 'accommodation' to find out if it is countable or uncountable after he wrote "There aren't many cheap accommodation in the area". I'm used to its being uncountable, but the student decided to go for the American usage. So I guess I'll have to be content with

There isn't much cheap accommodation in the area
and
There aren't many cheap accommodations in the area.

And the latter sounds so strange. Do people say 'accommodations' in Australia and Canada as well?

P.S. The book's British. Would a British teacher correct 'accommodations'?

Thank you in advance.

[5jj]

I used to correct it, but gave up. I realised that I was out of touch with how some people used the word, apparently quite acceptably. I still don't like it, but I have learnt to live with it.

[emsr2d2]

Hello,

I asked a student to look up the word 'accommodation' to find out if it is countable or uncountable after he wrote "There aren't many cheap accommodation in the area". I'm used to its being uncountable, but the student decided to go for the American usage. So I guess I'll have to be content with

There isn't much cheap accommodation in the area
and
There aren't many cheap accommodations in the area.

And the latter sounds so strange. Do people say 'accommodations' in Australia and Canada as well?

P.S. The book's British. Would a British teacher correct 'accommodations'?

Thank you in advance.

I'm in the UK and a BrE speaker. I would say "There isn't much cheap accommodation in the area". Only rarely have I seen "accommodations" and it would have been used to mean various houses, flats, apartments etc, not the generic term for "places to live".

[SoothingDave]

I would use "accommodations" to refer to hotels and other temporary places to stay, not to apartments for rent.

[suprunp]

Might I not ask you my small and slightly (only slightly, I hope) off topic question?

N-COUNT
An accommodation is an agreement between different people which enables them to exist together without trouble. [FORMAL]
Collins Cobuild Advanced Learner’s English Dictionary

[singular, uncountable] formal an agreement between people or groups who have different views or opinions, that satisfies everyone:
We reached an accommodation* between both parties.
(Longman, Dictionary of Contemporary English)

I was just about to ask you about the discrepancy between two dictionaries (one claims that the word in this meaning is countable, when the other says quite the contrary), when I noticed an accommodation*. So, it is just a small Longman's blunder, isn't it?

Thanks.

[emsr2d2]

Might I not ask you my small and slightly (only slightly, I hope) off topic question?



I was just about to ask you about the discrepancy between two dictionaries (one claims that the word in this meaning is countable, when the other says quite the contrary), when I noticed an accommodation*. So, it is just a small Longman's blunder, isn't it?

Thanks.

My use of "an accommodation" would lead me to say it's countable. There would have been a specific, identifiabe agreement between two (or more) parties which you would clearly be able to count.

My friend and I were arguing about where to go on holiday but finally we came to an accommodation.

The manager and the secretary were at loggerheads about how many hours the secretary should work but in the end they came to an accommodation and agreed on 35.

[Verona_82]

According to OALD, the word can be [U] / [C]

The two countries should be persuaded to work towards some sort of mutual accommodation

I guess they had the process/activity in mind... But I can't say I feel much difference

"At loggerheads"! Thanks for the idiom, emsr2d2!

[Raymott]

Do people say 'accommodations' in Australia and Canada as well?

Never, in Aus.

[5jj]

So, it is just a small Longman's blunder, isn't it?

Whichever way you look at it, that's a blunder. They call it uncountable and then give an example sentence in which it is clearly countable.

I am not quite sure at the moment whether I'd vote for C or U with that particular meaning. Put me down as 'undecided'.