"Such a bad behavior" or "Such bad behavior"?

Question

"I can’t believe he did that - I’ve never seen______ bad behavior!"

If there are two choices: "such" and "such a," which one is correct?

I personally think both are correct but have slightly different meaning which I couldn't figure out.

Graham Nicol · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-23 11:43:07Z

5

I can’t believe he did that - I’ve never seen such bad behavior!

Here you don't use an article because you are using behaviour in its uncountable sense – referring to his behaviour in general.

You would use an article if you are referring to a specific behaviour:

The gorilla adopted a dominant stance. This was a behaviour I had not seen before.

answered Oct 23, 2015 at 11:10

Graham Nicol

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I'm nodding in front of my screen. Thank you for your help
– Nguyen M
Oct 23, 2015 at 11:54

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sotondolphin · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-23 09:36:26Z

2

behaviour is uncountable. You should not put 'a' before uncountable noun.

answered Oct 23, 2015 at 9:36

sotondolphin

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1

Thanks but I did some quick search and found that it could be either countable and uncountable :( Even the exact phrase "such a bad behavior" is usually found in Google results.
– Nguyen M
Oct 23, 2015 at 9:43
1

@NguyenM I think both are correct. Such bad behavior is also correct.
– Usernew
Oct 23, 2015 at 9:45
Such bad thing is different from Such a bad thing.
– sotondolphin
Oct 23, 2015 at 9:46
@Usernew with no difference at all?
– Nguyen M
Oct 23, 2015 at 9:47
@NguyenM Zero results for "such a bad behavior" on Google Ngram. It shows "such bad behavior" to be more common. However, Google search results favors the opposite!
– Usernew
Oct 23, 2015 at 9:51

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