Heidi
When is 'change' countable and uncountable? Thanks
Mar 16, 2017 12:41 AM
Answers · 6
1
When you mean "starting with one thing then ending with something different", the word is countable. When you mean "leftover money after paying for something", it's uncountable.
March 16, 2017
Hi: I agree with Peachy, although I think he accidentally switched "countable" and "uncountable." You count the change from a monetary transaction: "I used a dollar for a twenty-nine cent purchase; and my change was two quarters, one dime, two nickels, and a penny: seventy-one cents." With "change" as in "make something different" or "exchange on thing for another," the singular and plural are largely interchangeable to my (native American English-speaking) ear. The exception would be when you want to emphasize that the change is singular: "the only change in the weather was a sudden drop in temperature," or plural: "we need to make quite a few changes around here."
March 16, 2017
Either sentence about weather is correct depending on what you are trying to say. It is still a question of being plural or singular. If I am thinking only about a single major change like overall weather conditions being different with each season then I would say, "We experience change in the weather with each season." However, if I am thinking of all the various weather changes in a season then I might use "changes." Either can be used comfortably in conversational speech.
March 16, 2017
No, Gabe's last sentence is more natural. I'm not sure why, but plural sounds best to a native speaker in this case. I suppose because the idea is that we're talking about all of the variables, e.g., temp, precipitation, etc.
March 16, 2017
Then what about 'we experience change in the weather with each season.'?
March 16, 2017
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