cattle

[sanalkuzu]

Is "cattle" a countable or uncountable word?

Thanks for your help

 

[Barb_D]

I'd say, uncountable.

I raise cattle. I have 300 head of cattle. (That's... what's the word? Metonymy? You say "head" for the whole body.)

My knowledge is based on American Westerns, so I really welcome input from someone who knows this for real.

 

[sanalkuzu]

I'd say, uncountable.

I raise cattle. I have 300 head of cattle. (That's... what's the word? Metonymy? You say "head" for the whole body.)

My knowledge is based on American Westerns, so I really welcome input from someone who knows this for real.

Barb thank you. So can i say "There is some cattle in the mountain" ?

 

[Barb_D]

I'd say "there are" since you mean more than one animal.

I realize this doesn't make sense, since we'd say "the laundry is" or "the luggage is" when we mean many items of clothing and many pieces of luggage, but we also say "the police are" to refer to the police force, and many officers.

 

[birdeen's call]

I raise cattle. I have 300 head of cattle. (That's... what's the word? Metonymy? You say "head" for the whole body.)

I think it's pars pro toto, a kind of synecdoche which is a kind of metonymy. ;-)