Food/foods

[Rachel Adams]

Hello.

When is it possible to use the word ''food'' as countable? These examples are from the book ''Reading Challenge.''

1. ''Many people thinkhamburgers are an American food''.
2. ''Where foods come from isn’t nearlyas important as how they taste; as long asthey are delicious!''

3. ''How much do you know about the history of some of your favorite foods?''

 

[GoesStation]

"Food" is countable when it refers to a category of food.

 

[Rachel Adams]

"Food" is countable when it refers to a category of food.

What do you mean by ''a category of food?''

 

[Yankee]

Vegetables, soups, desserts etc.

 

[Tdol]

Or cultural- Indian/French/Chinese together can be foods.

 

[Rachel Adams]

Or cultural- Indian/French/Chinese together can be foods.

[FONT=&quot]Sorry, cannot remove bold. The examples below are from Oxford advancedlearner's dictionary. Can ''food' ' be changed into ''foods'' in them?
baby food[/FONT][FONT=&quot] [/FONT][FONT=&quot](= prepared especially for babies)

[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Families that eat together consume healthier food.[/FONT]

• to grow/cook/serve/eat food
• Do you like Italian food?
• Demand for organic food has been growing fast.
• Pat had prepared food and drink for the work party.

 

[Rover_KE]

Type food/foods in the Search box near the top of the page. From the fifth entry down you will find links to previous answers to your question.

 

[GoesStation]

1. to grow/cook/serve/eat food
2. Do you like Italian food?
3. Demand for organic food has been growing fast.
4. Pat had prepared food and drink for the work party.

1. Not likely. Those things all relate to the overall category "food".
2. Possible. There are many specifically Italian kinds of food: pasta, antipasti, etc. You could be asking about them.
3. Possible. The statement is about any kind of food grown organically. If you make "food" plural, you're thinking about specific categories of organically-grown food: maybe grains, vegetables, and meat (or "meats" if you're thinking e.g. of pork, beef, and chicken).
4. Write food and drinks. She prepared the overall assembly of food for the gathering, but a specific set of drinks. "Food" has to be singular. (I'm not at all satisfied with this answer but I can't think of a better way to explain it.)

I have a feeling this issue is a corollary of article usage patterns and am, yet again, very glad I don't have to learn it.

 

[Alexey86]

I have a feeling this issue is a corollary of article usage patterns and am, yet again, very glad I don't have to learn it.

You are a lucky man! I had a long long discussion of article usage with "food" on WR https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/a-staple-food-is-a-food-that.3635970/.
And although I ended the discussion with "it was a happy ending," to be honest, the more I read it, the less happy I feel.

 

[jutfrank]

When we use food(s) as a countable noun, we're thinking of the food specifically, as an individual thing.

When we use food as an uncountable noun, we're thinking of it generally, as a kind of stuff.

I don't recommend trying to understand this distinction by reference to type because both countable and uncountable uses are used to state type. The key to understanding the notion of grammatical countability is to have a clear distinction in your mind about the two very different ways that people conceive of matter—as countable things and as uncountable stuff.

 

[Rachel Adams]

Type food/foods in the Search box near the top of the page. From the fifth entry down you will find links to previous answers to your question.

I don't trust other forums. I am faithful to UE.

 

[Alexey86]

When we use food(s) as a countable noun, we're thinking of the food specifically, as an individual thing.

When we use food as an uncountable noun, we're thinking of it generally, as a kind of stuff.

It sounds so simple... But if it were just a matter of the way of thinking, non-native speakers would make no mistakes in this case; and each time somebody pointed out the wrong article choice, I could say, "Oh, I just was thinking of it as..."

 

[Rover_KE]

I don't trust other forums. I am faithful to UE.

Apart from the first four advertising posts on every page which you need to ignore, the rest of the entries are exclusive to UE.

 

[jutfrank]

It sounds so simple...

Yes, it is actually very simple.

But if it were just a matter of the way of thinking, non-native speakers would make no mistakes in this case; and each time somebody pointed out the wrong article choice, I could say, "Oh, I just was thinking of it as..."

I don't really follow what you mean. I'm pretty sure Russian has the same distinction.

 

[Alexey86]

I don't really follow what you mean. I'm pretty sure Russian has the same distinction.

We don't have articles that would always point out this distinction. It's often implied. So, we don't bother about that. But we should bother in English. And "food" is always uncountable in Russian, we never say "foods." When I mean separate items of food, I use "products." The problem arises when I go to the Wiki article about food and read:

A functional food is a food...
Health food is food...
A negative-calorie food is food...

I see inconsistency in the article usage here, and I see no reason for that. Why did the author decide to use the zero and the indefinite article differently?

 

[jutfrank]

A functional food is a food...
Health food is food...
A negative-calorie food is food...

I see inconsistency in the article usage here, and I see no reason for that. Why did the author decide to use the zero and the indefinite article differently?

Yes, it's inconsistent, and no, there's no good reason for that. They should all be following the same pattern, whether that be with an indefinite or a zero article. I don't think there was a conscious decision to use inconsistent forms. It was likely just a lack of thorough proofing.

 

[Alexey86]

It was likely just a lack of thorough proofing.

If you only knew... But I don't want to repeat myself.