class or a class

[jutfrank]

To put things simply, we use nouns countably when we refer to them as particular, individual things, as distinct from other things, and we use nouns uncountably when we refer to them as more general. Here are examples I've made up to try to show the difference of meaning.

My morning class is really slow.
I have an extra class this week.
I can't stop—I have a class I have to teach in five minutes.

With the sentences above, the speaker is thinking about a class as a one-hour (or however long) session. In this sense, ' a class' can also be called 'a lesson'.

Where's Nam? Oh, she's gone to class.
It's not right for teachers to answer the phone during class.
When she's in class she's very vocal, but after class she's very quiet.

With the sentences above, the speaker is not thinking about any particular sessions. She's thinking about a more generalised idea of 'class', as a kind of activity or situation where one is sitting in a classroom studying (or teaching).

 

[Little Girl]

What about these sentences?

I'm in the middle of a/- class.

See me after the/- class. ( If a student approches me during class and wishes to discuss something.)

 

[Tarheel]

Say:

I'm in the middle of a class.

And:

See me after class.

(You use the right form in the parenthetical expression.)

:roll:

 

[Little Girl]

I'm in the middle of a class.

But if it's "in class", then no article is required, yes?

And:

See me after class.

Even if I mean after this class?

(You use the right form in the parenthetical expression.)

 

[Tarheel]

I'm in the middle of a class.

But if it's "in class", then no article is required, yes?

And:

See me after class.

Even if I mean after this class?

I'm not sure what you mean by that.
:-?

Yes, especially in that case.

Are we going to look at every possible example? Several times at that?
:roll:

 

[Little Girl]

Yes, especially in that case.

But I'm talking about a particular class. The class I'm in at the time of speaking.

I am not saying "On Wednesday, she has work after class.", where the article is not required.

Are we going to look at every possible example? Several times at that? I hope not.

 

[Phaedrus]

If I were in class with someone, and she said, "See me after the class," I would wonder, "After which class?"

My assumption would be that she was NOT talking about the class that we were it at the time of speech.

If she said, instead, "See me after a class," I would have absolutely no idea what she was talking about.

But if she said, "See me after class," the sentence would be natural and its meaning clear: "after this class."

If you want, quite unnecessarily, to use a determiner in that situation, use the demonstrative "this."

 

[Little Girl]

I have one more question popping up in my mind. See how confusing the word is for me to use.

Should we include the article here?

It's a language class, not a geography one where you just learn about facts and figures only.

 

[Tarheel]

It's a language class, not a geography one where you just learn about facts and figures only.

That is a good use of the article (a).

:up:

(Please learn to use the quote feature.)

 

[Little Girl]

Sorry - I keep coming back with questions. I'm just thinking of ways I normally use the word class.

How is this sentence more common - with or without "a"?

I can't talk to you now. I have a/- class in 5 minutes.

 

[Tarheel]

I can't talk to you now. I have a class in 5 minutes.

:up:

 

[tedmc]

I think the indefinite article could be omitted in BrE.

 

[Little Girl]

:up:

Just when I thought I was beginning to understand why we don't need the article! ��

 

[emsr2d2]

Both "I have class in five minutes" and "I have a class in five minutes" are natural and understandable. I have no preference (although as has been previously stated, in BrE you're more likely to hear "lesson" than "class").

Don't get trapped into thinking there is only one way of saying things. Quite frequently, that's not the case.

 

[Little Girl]

Both "I have class in five minutes" and "I have a class in five minutes" are natural and understandable. I have no preference (although as has been previously stated, in BrE you're more likely to hear "lesson" than "class").

Don't get trapped into thinking there is only one way of saying things. Quite frequently, that's not the case.

And what about just "I have class" - without any modifier?

 

[Rover_KE]

That only works in a different context.

class

n5 Informal. grace or dignity, as in behavior:

]​

She showed a lot of class during that interview.

(Collins)

 

[Little Girl]

That only works in a different context.

(Collins)[/FONT]

I see. So can we conclude that "I have class" means "I have grace" only and I have a class" means "I have a lesson"?

 

[Tarheel]

LG, it depends on context. Relax. Take it easy. You'll get it.

 

[emsr2d2]

I see. So can we conclude that "I have class" means "I have grace" only and I have a class" means "I have a lesson"?

No. Re-read all the responses again. It has been stated several times that "I have class" can refer to a lesson. It can also refer to having grace. You have to remember that context helps us discern what is meant when a word or a statement might be ambiguous.

Here's a short dialogue to illustrate how context helps:

Mum: Sarah, can you meet me at 4 and help me with the grocery shopping?
Sarah: No, sorry, mum. I have class.

I am certain that if you or anyone else saw that dialogue, they would not think that Sarah meant "I can't help you because I'm too classy/because I have grace".

 

[Phaedrus]

Just when I thought I was beginning to understand why we don't need the article! ��

I've come upon a very interesting article related to our discussion in this thread. It's called "Activity Implicatures and Possessor Implicatures: What Are Locations When There Is No Article?," by Laurel Stvan (Proceedings of the Chicago Linguistic Society 29: 419-433, 1993). In the article, Stvan argues that such nouns of location as school, class, church, prison, stage, work, home, deck, town, college, campus, etc., which are normally count nouns, carry two different types of implicature (one or both types, depending on the noun) when they are used in the singular without an article, as if they were noncount nouns.

The first type of implicature she calls Activity Implicature, whereby the noncount usage places "less emphasis on the locative sense" and "evoke an activity associated with that place" (p. 419). This can't be just any activity, however. For example, in a prison there are many different types of activities, including those belonging to the guards and the warden. But a sentence like John works in prison could not be used if John were the warden or one of the guards; in either of those cases, the sentence would need an article: John works in a/the prison. John works in prison can only be used if John is serving time as a prisoner and has work-duty as a prisoner.

The second type of implicature Stvan calls Possessor Implicature, whereby the noncount usage "is used to pick out a particular known location" and "relies on a type of shared knowledge about how each entity in the discourse is related to the location" (p. 419). Thus, the sentence John is at church indicates that John is at his church, i.e., the church of whose congregation he is a member. (The Activity Implicature, meanwhile, indicates, presumably, that he is there to worship.) If John is not a churchgoer, but merely happens to be at some church, the sentence John is at church could not be felicitously used. The sentence would need to be John is at a/the church.

With class and school, Stvan observes that the activity implicated in the noncount usage can pertain either to the role of student or teacher. The sentence John is in class can be used either if John is taking the class or if he is teaching the class. The Possessor Implicature indicates, meanwhile, that the activity is taking place in a class that is John's. John cannot be felicitously said to be in class or at school if he is not a student or a teacher but simply visiting some school or some class as a spectator; in that case, we would need to use John is in a/the class or John is at a/the school instead. But that is not to say that those sentences imply he is merely a spectator.

Class strikes me as being a somewhat special member of this list of "locative nouns," in that time seems to be a central component of its countable sense. As Jutfrank pointed out in Post #22, in the countable sense, "the speaker is thinking about a class as a one-hour (or however long) session." (Class is still locative, though, insofar as a class stereotypically occurs in a classroom.) It seems to me that the noncount usage, in addition to implying a teacher or student role for the person who "has/is in class," de-emphasizes or even nullifies the period-of-time meaning of class. To have class or to be in class is to have or be engaged in teacher- or student-related activity.

Thus, as Jutfrank said in Post #17, both I'm in class and I'm in a class (and both I have class and I have a class) can be correct, but that (to quote Jutfrank) "doesn't mean you can use either. It means that there may be a reason why you would need to use the article to create a countable noun, and there may be a reason not to use the article, to create an uncountable noun." I interpret I have class in 5 minutes as meaning that I have teacher/student activity in 5 minutes, and I have a class in 5 minutes as meaning that I have an X-minute long session in 5 minutes. Both formulations are 100% correct, but there is that subtle difference in meaning.

Sometimes the grammatical context requires the countable meaning. For example, *[strike]I'm taking class[/strike] is ungrammatical; it needs to be I'm taking a/the class. Generally, however, it will be the situational context that renders one or the other more desirable. I would be much more inclined to say How many classes did you have today? than How many times did you have class today?, though I believe the latter provides the closest noncount equivalent of the former. Also, it wouldn't be appropriate to say When was the last time you were in class? if the speaker knew the addressee wasn't taking or teaching any classes in this period of his or her life.