What's the correct way of saying 'Noodles is/are the most delicious food'? If we refer to noodles as a dish may we use 'is' in this case, then we should use it with 'the' I guess, but 'The noodles is the most delicious food' sounds weird for me, or is it? Thanks for your answers!
3 Answers
I've only heard and seen "Noodles are delicious." or "The noodles are really good, thank you!" So for you, it would be "Noodles (no article because we are talking about noodles in general) are the most delicious food." If you're talking about some particular noodles, it would be "The noodles are delicious." We are talking about the plural of noodle - noodles.
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1Though, oddly, spaghetti, which is plural in Italian, is treated as uncountable in English, as though 'it' were a substance. Commented Nov 30, 2022 at 9:29
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1@KateBunting - similarly with paparazzi, people seem to no longer acknowledge a single paparazzo. Data/datum similarly. You could stretch to "This Korean chicken and noodles is delicious" by kind of mentally clumping them together into being a single dish, rather than a plural of individual foodstuffs. Commented Nov 30, 2022 at 10:59
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In AmE noodles is not a dish (i.e. a specific type of meal). A four year-old might tell you they're having noodles for dinner but adults generally do not say things like, I had noodles for dinner. Noodles are usually a component of a larger dish and we say we ate the larger dish. I ate spaghetti. I ate ramen. I ate Korean chicken and noodles. I ate linguini and clams.– EllieKCommented Nov 30, 2022 at 14:11
Talking about the noodles themselves requires a plural verb:
- Noodles are the main ingredient.
- The noodles are in the cupboard.
Using a short form for, say, Singapore noodles or egg noodles with Alfredo sauce, where the listeners know what it is referring to, requires a singular verb:
- Noodles is my favourite meal.
Saying "the noodles is" would be unusual, as with the "the" it wouldn't simply be a short form.
answered Nov 30, 2022 at 1:24
Everyone I know says "noodles are." Noodles are not too hard to count, so noodles is a countable word. See what I did there? Additionally, we say "scrambled eggs is" because it's an uncountable mass.
