Re: Weekly Vocab #5.3 (original)

Hi!

Tim May writes:
> Carsten Becker wrote at 2006-09-16 10:49:41 (-0400)
>...
>  > On Sat, 16 Sep 2006 11:51:28 -0000, caeruleancentaur
>  > <caeruleancentaur@...> wrote:
>  >
>  > >This bread is mouldy, I urgently need to buy a new one (sic).
>  >
>  > What's wrong with that? I meant a new loaf of bread. I guess one
>  > cannot say it like that in English?
>
> You have to say either "this loaf is mouldy, I need to buy a new one"
> or "this bread is mouldy, I need to buy some more". (English mass
> nouns differ in the extent to which they can be used as count nouns
> meaning a portion or serving, so for other things, particularly
> drinks, the structure you have there might be possible.  But you'd
> never call a loaf of bread "a bread", so it doesn't work.)
>...
Ah!

I think the profane source of confusion is that 'bread' is a strict
mass noun in English, while it isn't in German.  I also did not known.
Interesting.

Funny this type of difference exists in such closely related
languages, while it looks like a typical difference with, say,
Chinese.

**Henrik