[Grammar] I like omelette

[englishhobby]

Is the sentence I like omelette grammatical and natural? The word omelette is described as countable only in all the dictionaries in which I've looked it up.

 

[GoesStation]

Omelette only works as a countable noun for me.

 

[englishhobby]

Omelette only works as a countable noun for me.

So, how would you say it with "I like..."?

 

[probus]

In AmE we usually say "I like omelettes."

"I like an omelette" is also possible, but less common. For example, I like an omelette when I'm in a hurry.

 

[englishhobby]

Omelette only works as a countable noun for me.

I had a little discussion with other non-native teachers of English, and we came to the conclusion that an omelette is associated with a pancake for native speakers while in my language it's more like a piece of some "fluffy" substance. A piece of omelette is the same as a piece of cake or pizza. So we say in my language I like pizza and I like omelette.

 

[GoesStation]

Omelets (American spelling) come in a variety of varieties. They're usually a large, medium-thin fried whipped egg concoction folded over a savory filling. The word would virtually never be used uncountably.

 

[Tdol]

In AmE we usually say "I like omelettes."

"I like an omelette" is also possible, but less common. For example, I like an omelette when I'm in a hurry.

The same is true of BrE for me.

 

[jutfrank]

There's apparently an interesting difference between British and American usage here.

To a Brit, there's nothing at all odd about the uncountable use of I like omelette. As post #2 says, the speaker is thinking in general terms, i.e. as omelette as a kind of food rather than a discrete item. I don't know why that's an uncomfortable idea to our American speakers. As far as I can tell, both 'omelette' and 'omelet' refer to the same thing, so I wonder where this difference stems from.

 

[emsr2d2]

I'm a Brit and I don't like "I like omelette". I would use the plural there.

 

[jutfrank]

I'm a Brit and I don't like "I like omelette". I would use the plural there.

Right. That now makes me think it's not a variety difference.

I don't quite see why anyone wouldn't like it, though.

 

[Tdol]

There's little agreement on anything in the UK. ;-)

 

[jutfrank]

There's little agreement on anything in the UK.

I'm not so sure about that.

 

[Tdol]

You that sure? ;-)

 

[Tdol]

I couldn't agree more or less. Or something similar.

 

[jutfrank]

One thing I am sure of is how much I like omelette.

 

[Phaedrus]

I was thinking that I, a native AmE speaker, would use "omelet" as a noncount noun only in "kind of omelet" -- e.g., "What kind of omelet would you like?"

It was pleasing to me, therefore, when I checked the OED, to find that that is the only phrase in which it is used as a noncount noun in the examples.

A dish traditionally made of beaten eggs fried in a pan, sometimes with the addition of other ingredients to the mixture, served plain or with a sweet or (esp.) savoury filling.Frequently as the second element in compounds, as mushroom omelette, Spanish omelette: see at first word.

1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Omelette [v.r. Haumelotte, Homelette], an Omelet, or Pancake of egges.
1655 tr. C. Sorel Comical Hist. Francion ii. 26 I was commanded to make an Aumelet, it being Friday.
1657 R. Ligon True Hist. Barbados 36 An Amulet of eggs.
1681 W. Robertson Phraseologia generalis (1693) 185 An Aumulet of Eggs.
1698 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 20 70 A Fresh Egg in Fashion of an Ammulet.
1699 J. Evelyn Acetaria 18 In Omlets, made up with Cream, fried in sweet Butter.
1733 S. Harrison House-keeper's Pocket-bk. ii. 9 Eggs dress'd, in several sorts of Amlets.
1749 T. Smollett tr. A. R. Le Sage Gil Blas I. i. ii. 8 When the amlet I had bespoke was ready, I sat down to table.
1750 E. Smith Compl. Housewife (ed. 14) 50 An Amulet of Eggs the savoury way.
1775 J. Ash New Dict. Eng. Lang. Amelet, a kind of pancake.
1785 W. Withering Acct. Foxglove p. xiv Some persons, soon after eating of a kind of omalade, into which the leaves of this [sc. the foxglove].., had entered as an ingredient, found themselves much indisposed.
1804 ‘Ignotus’ Culina 166 The omelette is an extemporaneous dish that admits of great variation in its composition.
1860 N. Hawthorne Marble Faun I. xxv. 273 Old Stella..quickly followed it with a savory omelet.
1909 Daily Chron. 2 Feb. 4/7 The recipe for an eggless omelette.
1960 Farmer & Stockbreeder 29 Mar. (Suppl.) 8/21 For the next omelette..you really need the mild sweetness of the true Gruyère.
1989 N. Sherry Life Graham Greene I. xxxv. 539 Their cook, Souri, made them an enormous omelette.

 

[jutfrank]

There are a couple of non-count uses (7 and 9) in the first ten listed here on COCA:

https://www.english-corpora.org/coca/

 

[jutfrank]

In a COCA search, I found only two convincing citations of 'omelet' without a determiner or 'kind of' in the first 100 citations I looked at:


... uneaten plates of potato omelet or grilled prawns.
After a few mouthfuls of omelet, ...

Snap!

Also 13, 28, 55, 100.

I'm not quite sure what's going on with 27, 32, 35, 36.

In 62 it's a verb!

 

[jutfrank]

On second thoughts, I'm not sure if 28 counts (no pun intended) since it appears to be the title of a poem. And 55 could be read as having an ellipsis of an indefinite article, I think.