this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2024
972 points (96.6% liked)
Funny: Home of the Haha
5755 readers
835 users here now
Welcome to /c/funny, a place for all your humorous and amusing content.
Looking for mods! Send an application to Stamets!
Our Rules:
-
Keep it civil. We're all people here. Be respectful to one another.
-
No sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia or any other flavor of bigotry. I should not need to explain this one.
-
Try not to repost anything posted within the past month. Beyond that, go for it. Not everyone is on every site all the time.
Other Communities:
-
/c/TenForward@lemmy.world - Star Trek chat, memes and shitposts
-
/c/Memes@lemmy.world - General memes
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Do you refer to a bag of popcorn as one singular popped corn?
I refer to a bag of popcorn as a bag of popcorn
You yourself just referred to it as a "bag"
Yeah but it's like the difference between a shirt and a pair of pants.
Pants are one singular item yet we use a plural word to describe them.
Are you trolling? Nobody says popcorns.
No this is just an example of the opposite.
We also use singular words when referring to the plural. Corn is a perfect example. Corn is the singular and the plural.
So using "them" when referring to corn (or in this case popcorn) makes sense. There are multiple kernels and with "them" being a plural pronoun it fits.
I was saying 'popcorns'.....
It's a singular mass noun like sand. Do you say "popcorns"?
The sands of time.
I would like one sack of sands, please.
https://youtu.be/YGqdjaz2Upg
It's like fish and sheep. One popcorn, two popcorn, a bag of popcorn.
You can't say "one popcorn" or "two popcorn" because mass nouns aren't countable. It's just "popcorn" for any amount of popcorn. Notice I said "amount" and not "number" because, again, popcorn is a mass noun and cannot be enumerated. If you want to enumerate kernals of popcorn, you have to say "kernels of popcorn".
Yes, you can. I just did. Try to stop me.
Yes, actually. I refer to it as "popcorn" just like you did just now.
A serving is often treated as singular a unit in English. Popcorn, rice, candy, etc. "I ate all of it," not "I ate all of them." Only when referring to pieces of popcorn does it become them.