Why do we say I like apples when we want to talk about our favourite fruit but for some of the fruits like watermelon we use singular from?

Question

My question is about using singular and plural form of nouns after I like.

Answer 1

(Native English speaker from the northeast US)

Some English nouns are usually used in the plural for a variety of reasons. I think Kate Bunting is correct, that we use the singular for Watermelon in this case because it's a big fruit so we wouldn't usually be eating more than a portion of one. Whereas apples are small so we might have multiple at once. Here are some other examples of that same pattern:

I like _____ (plural):

• Apples, pears, kiwis, peaches, bananas, berries
• Hotdogs, hamburgers, french fries, chicken wings
• Tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, mushrooms
• Tacos, burritos, dumplings, samosas, noodles These are all things that are individual, often small, pieces. You can count how many you're eating, and people might reasonably eat more than one at a time.

I like _____ (singular):

• Watermelon, mango*, cantaloupe, grapefruit, dragonfruit
• Pizza, spaghetti, pasta, chicken
• Zucchini, cabbage, spinach, broccoli
• Curry, soup, polenta, rice These things are either too large such that people don't usually eat a whole one or hard to count (what is "one curry" does that mean "one pot of curry" or "one bowl of curry" or something else?)

Mango

I think that in the US, saying "I like mango" and "I like mangoes" would both be correct, but would mean slightly different things. Most Americans don't have access to fresh mango very often (or don't know how to cut/eat it). So instead, most Americans eat mango either in dried strips or as flavoring in candy, ice cream, etc. "I like mango" means "I like the flavor of mango" or maybe "I like eating pieces of mango." "I like mangoes" means "I like eating fresh mango fruit" which is rarer in the US.