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Fri 20 Apr, 2018 12:47 am
Hi.
One of the most difficult part about English for me is
how to distinguish countable nouns from uncountable ones.
I learned that they got some things considered uncountable
such as water, air, sky and so on.
Well, in quite many cases though, natives speakers seem to
regard that almost everything is countable.
Winds.. Waves..
Can you even count 'heaven'?
I got this line from the move, 'Tangled'.
- A small drop of sunlight fell from the HEAVENS.
No matter how long I look up the sky,
I can't figure out how come they think they can count heaven. This is driving me crazy.
Would you please help me figure this out?
@SMickey,
SMickey wrote:
No matter how long I look up the sky,
I can't figure out how come they think they can count heaven. This is driving me crazy.
Would you please help me figure this out?
Nope. I sure would like to be the one to help, but alas. Heaven as a religious concept is, by its very nature, unique. We do sometimes refer to the starry skies, or all the starry heavens.
Maybe somebody with more smarts will come along.
Heavens, in that context, is just a synonym for the sky. I can't tell you the origin of the usage, but it is quite common.
The sky grew dark with the approaching storm. The heavens grew dark with the approaching storm.
When the storm arrived, the sky opened and poured rain on the fields. When the storm arrived, the heavens opened and poured rain on the fileds.
In the Kabbalah, a text of rabbinical teaching (Jewish teaching) and in Islam, there are seven levels to Heaven. This does not make heaven a countable noun, and only usually appears in English as "seventh heaven," referring to the highest level of heaven, and meaning the most sublime, the most exalted of anything.
We ate at that new place out by the beach--the food was incredible, we were in seventh heaven.
@roger,
I'm neither a native English nor more smarts than roger. But:
Quote:The plural form "heavens" or "the heavens" has been typical in reference to the impersonal sky since the 17th century. The plural form became less common in reference to the abode of God, the gods, or the blessed departed as the medieval view of celestial spheres was disproven; it is still commonly used, however, in discussing theologies such as Buddhism which retain numerous heavens or levels of heaven.
The term is capitalized as Heavens or "the Heavens" when (infrequently) used as a proper name.
Wikionary
The reason is quite simple: it derived from the Germanic form
Hemina- (meaning something like "blanket").
In German,
Himmel is used in plural as well - but the word looks the same, even if there more than one heaven: die Himmel, pl. - der Himmel, sing.
Thanks to both of you. Now I know what I should have said.
Walter's got lots of smarts, by the way.
@roger,
roger wrote:Walter's got lots of smarts, by the way.
Referring to roger's typo:
@Walter Hinteler,
No, in proper English, it is called 'smarts'.
SMickey, I think you can safely ignore this and most posts that follow.
@SMickey,
We've got smarts cuz we study math
@SMickey,
This is a complicated topic that just comes naturally to us. It is even more difficult because sometime we use the same word as both countable and uncountable depending on context.
I have great love for humanity (uncountable).
I have had many loves in my life (countable).
There is nothing to fear but fear itself (uncountable).
I have a fear of spiders (countable).
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