1.29 mass nouns

When you are sure that your reader or hearer will understand that a quantity of something is being referred to, you do not need to use a quantifier.

For example, in a restaurant you can ask for 'three cups of coffee', but you can also ask for 'three coffees' because the person you are talking to will know that you mean 'three cups of coffee'. In this way, the uncount noun 'coffee' has become countable.

Nouns used in this way are called mass nouns.

1.30

Mass nouns are often used to refer to quantities of a particular kind of food or drink.

• We spent two hours talking over coffee and biscuits in her study.
• We stopped for a coffee at a small cafe.
• ...plentiful cheap beer.
• ...profits from low-alcohol beers.
• We were not allowed to buy wine or spirits at lunch time.
• I like wines and liqueurs.

1.31

Similarly, some uncount nouns can be mass nouns when they refer to types of something. For example, 'cheese' is usually an uncount noun but you can talk about 'a large range of cheeses'.

Mass nouns referring to different types of a substance are mainly used in technical contexts. For example 'steel' is nearly always an uncount noun, but in contexts where it is important to distinguish between different kinds of steel it can be a mass noun.

• ...imports of European steel.
• ...the use of small amounts of nitrogen in making certain steels.