Recovery period — countable vs uncountable?

Status
Not open for further replies.

english_learn

Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2010
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Tamil
Home Country
Switzerland
Current Location
Australia
Hi teacher,

I am confused with the sentence below. I believe "a" is not required front of recovery period as it is not countable. We don's say two , three , four recovery period. Clarify please

"The very lack of a recovery period is dramatically holding back our collective ability to be resilient and successful"
 
Last edited by a moderator:

emsr2d2

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 28, 2009
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
UK
Re: Countable vs uncountable

What makes you think "period" (with or without an adjective) is uncountable?
 

english_learn

Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2010
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Tamil
Home Country
Switzerland
Current Location
Australia
Re: Countable vs uncountable

What makes you think "period" (with or without an adjective) is uncountable?

Period is related to time which is not countable?
 

Rover_KE

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jun 20, 2010
Member Type
Retired English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
England
Current Location
England
Re: Countable vs uncountable

What makes you think 'time' is uncountable?

***

I have edited your thread title.

'Thread titles should include all or part of the word/phrase being discussed.'
 

english_learn

Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2010
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Tamil
Home Country
Switzerland
Current Location
Australia
Re: Countable vs uncountable

What makes you think 'time' is uncountable?

***

I have edited your thread title.

'Thread titles should include all or part of the word/phrase being discussed.'



Because we don't say one time , two time. so it is not countable
 

Raymott

VIP Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2008
Member Type
Academic
Native Language
English
Home Country
Australia
Current Location
Australia
Re: Countable vs uncountable

Because we don't say one time , two time. so it is not countable
A: "How many times have you seen her?"
B: "Twice, I think; maybe three times."

You are correct in saying that we don't say "two time" - we say 'twice' or 'two times'.

"In this study, we measured the recovery periods of 25 patients."
 

english_learn

Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2010
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Tamil
Home Country
Switzerland
Current Location
Australia
Re: Countable vs uncountable

'At one time she wanted to be a nurse, but the thought of working at night put her off.'── quoted from http://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/time_1


But please refer item number 5 in the link. it says [h=2]period of time[/h] [singular, uncountable] a period of time during which something happens or someone does something:
 

Matthew Wai

VIP Member
Joined
Nov 29, 2013
Member Type
Native Language
Chinese
Home Country
China
Current Location
China
Re: Countable vs uncountable

'Time' in that sense is uncountable, but 'periods of time' is countable, as 'pieces of information' is countable although 'information' is uncountable.
 

GoesStation

No Longer With Us (RIP)
Joined
Dec 22, 2015
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
American English
Home Country
United States
Current Location
United States
Re: Countable vs uncountable

But please refer item number 5 in the link. it says [h=2]period of time[/h] [singular, uncountable] a period of time during which something happens or someone does something:

Many nouns have both countable and non-countable senses. Period is one of them.
 

english_learn

Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2010
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Tamil
Home Country
Switzerland
Current Location
Australia
Re: Countable vs uncountable

'Time' in that sense is uncountable, but 'periods of time' is countable, as 'pieces of information' is countable although 'information' is uncountable.


But look the item 5 in the provided link. It says period of time is uncountable
 

Matthew Wai

VIP Member
Joined
Nov 29, 2013
Member Type
Native Language
Chinese
Home Country
China
Current Location
China
Re: Countable vs uncountable

You have got it wrong. It means 'time' is uncountable when referring to a period of time.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top