Timeline for answer to Why isn't watermelon plural in this sentence? by Nuclear Hoagie
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
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| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| 18 hours ago | comment | added | HippoSawrUs | Yeah, that's not a thing with ingredients. No one is uncounting apple-sized anything after all that time spent adding and subtracting them, in their formative years, just because there's some sugar or whatever in there. Nobody is counting beans, peas, blueberries, mini marshmallows, etc. Regardless of what a traditional pound cake may have led anyone to believe, parallelism is not idiomatic when it comes to lists of ingredients, or various odd things (AmE). But it could've been a melon salad, with cantaloupe, honeydew, and watermelon. | |
| yesterday | comment | added | Nuclear Hoagie | @HippoSawrUs "Some watermelon" is uncountable again, and would not fit in parallel structure with countable "mangoes" and "oranges". | |
| 2 days ago | comment | added | HippoSawrUs | You could just say "some watermelon." And BTW, why ruin perfectly good watermelon? But everyone knows you're not going to put a truckload of watermelons in a salad; it's probably going to fit in a salad bowl. | |
| 2 days ago | comment | added | Barmar | Since watermelons come in varying sizes, that's not very meaningful. If you want to say how much, you'd probably say it in volume or weight: a half pint of watermelon. | |
| 2 days ago | comment | added | Nuclear Hoagie | @Barmar If that's too much fruit salad for you, you could use "half a watermelon" as a countable noun instead. | |
| 2 days ago | comment | added | Barmar | So do "mangoes" and "oranges". More likely would be "mango and orange wedges, and watermelon balls" | |
| 2 days ago | comment | added | Barmar | "a watermelon" sounds like you're putting the entire melon in the salad. | |
| 2 days ago | history | answered | Nuclear Hoagie | CC BY-SA 4.0 |