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According to this website, enter image description here

So is the second example equivalent to

If you want to lose weight, you shouldn't eat so many types of desserts.

?

Can it be

If you want to lose weight, you shouldn't eat so much dessert.

regarding as a general idea of dessert?

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    The countable form is more like "so many servings of dessert", rather than types. Expressing it as so much dessert is also ok, but to my ear it sounds like it's talking about the portion size of one serving of dessert.
    – Lawrence
    Feb 25, 2017 at 14:24
  • When you add "types" you are pluralizing the phrase, so dessert does not need to be plural. Just "so many types of dessert".
    – user3169
    Feb 25, 2017 at 18:27
  • This other question may be helpful : ell.stackexchange.com/q/93259
    – ColleenV
    Mar 1, 2017 at 15:26
  • @ColleenV. Please note that even in the link you have cited, the approved answer states: In this example, ice cream is not serving as countable thing, it is an uncountable base material out of which something countable is formed, (Adam). The some is less than the whole, as it may be.
    – Teacher KSHuang
    Mar 1, 2017 at 15:50
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    @TeacherKSHuang I see what the problem is - What is the "whole" ice cream that "some" is less than? A quart? A gallon? All of the ice cream in the world? Some doesn't mean less than the whole. It mean an undefined amount.
    – ColleenV
    Mar 1, 2017 at 15:55

1 Answer 1

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This is the way I think of it and how I always show my students:

A pizza, some pizzas and some pizza:

A pizza is one whole pizza.

Some pizzas are two or more whole pizzas.

Some pizza is just a slice or more of the pizza. It is however much is less than the whole pizza (i.e., less than eight slices).

I usually draw three pictures: one whole pizza, two whole pizzas and a slice of pizza removed (but still near) the whole pizza (don't forget to draw the slice's negative space).

This example also works for cakes, soda (a full bottle, two bottles, some leftover in a bottle), and of course, desserts :).

Good luck.

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    'Some pizza' doesn't have to be less than a whole pizza. For example, "My 15 friends and I went out for some pizza." That many people would eat more than one pizza. We would typically not make pizza plural.
    – ColleenV
    Mar 1, 2017 at 14:39
  • @ColleenV, I would agree with you, but your example sentence does not lend credence to your statement. You imply that saying more people had gone out for some pizza will affect the amount indicated by "some pizza," but this is a false assumption. If you break down your example sentence to, "I went out for some pizza," and "My friends went out for some pizza," you'll see that by the very nature of having used the uncountable, "some pizza," the amount of pizza that had been consumed had not been specified (though we may make an educated guess based on our experience with pizza in the past).
    – Teacher KSHuang
    Mar 1, 2017 at 15:29
  • I don't really understand what you're trying to say in your comment, but your statement in your answer that "some pizza" is less than the whole pizza, is incorrect. I would not say "Let's go out for some pizzas everyone!" It is more idiomatic to say "Let's go out for some pizza everyone!" Sometimes the "some" is dropped, "Let's go out for pizza!", but it doesn't change the meaning.
    – ColleenV
    Mar 1, 2017 at 15:36
  • @ColleenV, you're confusing idiomatic usage with countable and uncountable. By its very nature, some means "a more limited quantity." In the case of pizza, cake, soda, dessert, etc., this generally means less than the whole.
    – Teacher KSHuang
    Mar 1, 2017 at 15:43
  • @ColleenV, and what I had been saying was that you needed a different example as none of them applied to your statement.
    – Teacher KSHuang
    Mar 1, 2017 at 15:46

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