Does the noun 'English' have to be always uncountable?

Question

Grammarly doesn't like my using an indefinite article before the noun 'English' because, I suppose, it's an uncountable noun. So for instance:

The novel is written in an elegant English. (❌ WRONG)

You have an excellent English. (❌ WRONG)

To correct it, I can either simply remove the article or turn the word 'English' into the adjective of a noun. See examples below:

The novel is written in elegant English. (I removed the article)

The novel is written in an elegant English style. ('An' here defines the noun 'style', and 'English' becomes an adjective.)

This is not the first time that I have problems with the 'uncountability' of nouns, since in my native language they are far fewer. In my native language, for instance, saying that a novel is written in an elegant English, would imply style or type, without the need to actually specify it. It even seems to me that this addition ruins the elegance of the sentence. But again, this might be a biased impression due to my linguistic background.

So, my questions are:

Is this rule so strict, or can I use an indefinite article before the noun English?
What kind of meaning or formality would such usage convey to a native English speaker?

Grammarly is a tool to help writers spot possible errors. Since the tool isn't perfect, the people who run Grammarly had to decide whether to make the mistake of flagging some correct things as wrong, or not flagging some wrong things as correct. They wisely chose to flag some correct things as wrong. Do not take Grammarly as truth. It's a useful tool to prevent you from making embarrassing or damaging errors. It's not as good a tool for learning the rules of English. — gotube, Sep 10 '22 at 14:21
Grammerly is correct. An elegant/excellent form of English should replace an elegant/excellent English. — John Douma, Sep 10 '22 at 23:44
You should be specific about which dialect of English you want this answered for. There are valid constructions in Indian English which would be considered understandable but wrong in American English, and American usages which someone from Great Britain would find questionable, and... "Countries divided by our shared language." — keshlam, Sep 11 '22 at 02:33
@DavidZ An answer was already accepted when I read the question, but thanks anyway. — John Douma, Sep 11 '22 at 02:55
@JohnDouma Well, my point was more that it shouldn't be posted as a comment. Of course it's up to you whether you want to post it as an answer, or not at all. (I would say it's totally legitimate to post an answer even if there's already an accepted answer - and in fact sometimes another later answer gets more upvotes, or the OP might even change their acceptance - but it's your choice.) — David Z, Sep 11 '22 at 03:54
@keshlam You might even say that there are differences between those Englishes. In one English something might be acceptable, but in another English it might not be acceptable. :) — Joshua Taylor, Sep 12 '22 at 13:14
See also https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/100600/she-speaks-an-impeccable-english-vs-she-speaks-impeccable-english. — Théophile, Sep 12 '22 at 16:05

Michael Harvey · Accepted Answer · 2022-09-11T13:30:52.323

You would be wise not to depend solely on Grammarly for your grammar advice. You may safely ignore its advice for what it alleges to be your 'mistakes'. You can use an indefinite article before most uncountable nouns, if you wish to discuss a particular type, example, variety, etc, of the thing denoted by that noun. For example 'coal' is usually considered uncountable, but I might have designed a steam engine that only works efficiently with a particular variety of coal, and I could say, for example, that it works best with a coal that burns with a high temperature and without much smoke. Likewise, last night at a dinner party I was served a coffee that had a smoky flavour with hints of chocolate and vanilla.

You can say 'an English' if you wish to discuss a particular type or variety of English (there are plenty - slang, informal, formal, legal, scientific, etc), or perhaps that spoken by an individual, and for an example of this usage, I don't think you can get much better that this:

Educated speech - by definition the language of education - naturally tends to be given the additional prestige of government agencies, the learned professions, the political parties, the press, the law court and the pulpit - any institution which must attempt to address itself to a public beyond the smallest dialectal community. The general acceptance of 'BBC English' for this purpose over almost half a century is paralleled by a similar designation for general educated idiom in the United States, 'network English*. By reason of the fact that educated English is thus accorded implicit social and political sanction, it comes to be referred to as Standard English, and provided we remember that this does not mean an English [my bold emphasis - MH] that has been formally standardized by official action, as weights and measures are standardized, the term is useful and appropriate.

A Grammar of Contemporary English, by Randolph Quirk, S Greenbaum, G. Leech, J Svartvik (1973, Longman, London)

score 10 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 10 '22 at 14:19

10

Grammarly is wrong here.

Just as in your language, speaking of "an elegant English" is easily understood to mean "an elegant style of English". Similarly, "You have an excellent English" is understood to mean "Your variety of English is excellent", though many would find this sentence offensive as it implies that some dialects of English are inherently superior to others, and thus the speakers themselves are too.

answered Sep 10 '22 at 14:19

gotube

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Just because you understand "an elegant English" to mean "an elegant style of English" doesn't mean it is correct. I understand what someone means when they refer to a request as an "ask" but that doesn't make it correct. – John Douma Sep 11 '22 at 00:10
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@JohnDouma I'm also asserting it's correct. If it weren't correct, I would say so. – gotube Sep 11 '22 at 04:20
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How is "an elegant English" correct? What is an "English"? – John Douma Sep 11 '22 at 04:21
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@JohnDouma Like I said in my answer above, it means a variety or version of English. Here's a list of real-world examples – gotube Sep 11 '22 at 04:25
That is not correct. You can say "he spoke a form of English" but that is not the same as "he spoke an English". Again, understanding what someone means does not make a statement correct. For example, "I drinks a lot" is easily understood to mean "I drink a lot" but the first form is not correct. – John Douma Sep 11 '22 at 04:28
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@JohnDouma If you won't take a list of real-world examples as evidence that "an English" is possible, then I can't help you. – gotube Sep 11 '22 at 04:34
@gotube - especially from Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartvik. – Michael Harvey Sep 11 '22 at 10:17
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@JohnDouma I'm just thinking. After all, if we can say "Your English is good" (we all agree this is correct), it means that someone else's English might not. This, ipso facto, implies the existence of different 'Englishes'. Of course, what we mean in this case is the level/knowledge of the English language. It is my understanding that what we're dealing with here is a grammatical ellipsis rather than an error. Conversely, your example (I drinks a lot) is clearly nothing more than a typo. – Fra Sep 11 '22 at 12:29
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If I heard someone say, "You have an excellent English" to another person, I'd just assume they made a mistake. There are definitely ways you can use "an English" and have it sound correct, but that is not one of those ways. Only if the topic of dialects was first introduced would I maybe understand it in that way. But I'd probably just assume they meant to say something along the lines of "You speak English well" and simply misspoke. I would not assume they were speaking about a particular variety of English. – ZLK Sep 12 '22 at 05:57
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@Fra saying "your English is good" is just like saying "your driving is good". That doesn't mean you have "a driving" and someone else has "a different driving". – Especially Lime Sep 12 '22 at 06:15
@EspeciallyLime why not? Sure it does. Same applies there. It's implied to mean "a style of driving" just like it's "a style of English" – Ivo Sep 12 '22 at 06:43
@JohnDouma Some more examples, from a 1960 article written by a grammarian: "... and cultivate an English that will make us indistinguishable from the ostensibly educated surrounding majority", followed by "He will come out speaking and writing an American English faithfully represented by the scattering that follows: ..." (And what follows is a litany of examples of grammatical errors such as using "who" instead of "whom". Evidently the author felt that "an English" was just fine.) – Théophile Sep 12 '22 at 16:16
@Théophile - the rule about who and whom is more prescriptive than descriptive. In other words, it represents one grammarian's opinion. – Michael Harvey Sep 12 '22 at 20:59
@MichaelHarvey Indeed, the subject of that article seemed ironic in light of the discussion, so perhaps it would have been clearer if I had said "perceived grammatical errors" or put "errors" in quotes. In any case, independently of the fact that the article happens to be about grammar, the main point was just to provide more examples of "an English". – Théophile Sep 12 '22 at 21:06

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 12 '22 at 12:22

As a general rule, normally uncountable nouns can be treated as countable when being used to discuss types or varieties of what the uncountable form refers to. There are a couple of ways this can be done:

Qualifying the uncountable noun by specifying the ‘type’ of type as part of a phrasal noun. For example: ‘dialect of English’ or ‘style of English’.
Qualifying the uncountable noun using a possessive, possibly with additional qualification in the sentence. For example ‘His English is refined.’
Qualifying the uncountable noun using an article, then further qualifying it with additional phrasing in the sentence. For example ‘The English they speak is refined.’.
Qualifying the uncountable noun using an article alone, or an article and some adjectives. This is the form seen in both of your examples.

The first form above is pretty much always acceptable. The other forms, however, while always grammatically valid, are not always considered stylistically acceptable by native speakers (that is, native speakers will usually understand them, but they may ‘sound wrong’), with acceptable forms depending on the particular noun. Language names are one particular category of noun that generally fails that stylistic aspect for the fourth form. Grammarly is most likely marking your examples invalid based on that stylistic aspect, not the actual grammar.

I would resent it if Grammarly told me I could not write "Martine speaks a warm-hearted meridional French that sings of a warm sunny day in Perpignan". — Michael Harvey, Sep 13 '22 at 07:53

score -2 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 11 '22 at 16:11

-2

As a general rule, adding or removing an adjective before a noun does not change whether an article is required. Since you would not say "The novel is written in an English" (or "in the English"), you should not say "The novel is written in an elegant English".

answered Sep 11 '22 at 16:11

Especially Lime

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This is wrong. Uncountable nouns do not take indefinite articles, but they can often be qualified by an adjective meaning "a particular type or instance", and then they take an article. For example, searching the iWeb corpus for "a|an ADJ compassion", gives 869 hits, for example a quiet compassion, an immense compassion. – Colin Fine Sep 11 '22 at 16:37
@ColinFine I would not expect "quiet compassion" to take an article, and indeed a quick ngrams search indicates that "a quiet compassion" makes up only a small fraction of the hits for "quiet compassion". – Especially Lime Sep 12 '22 at 06:10
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True, it is less common. But that does not invalidate my point, except perhaps that I could have said and then they can take an article. – Colin Fine Sep 12 '22 at 10:21
@ColinFine if all you mean is that "some people sometimes use an article here", that is true but not very relevant. Some people sometimes do all sorts of things, intentionally or otherwise. Using an article appears not to be standard, or common, even for the very specific case you suggested. – Especially Lime Sep 12 '22 at 10:29
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@EspeciallyLime The fact that some native speakers use an article there is the only relevant thing to determining whether something is grammatically correct. It's the definition of what's correct. All the rules of English and everything that derives from them are abstractions we've made based on observation of what native speakers do. If I think I know something about English, then I see that a bunch of native speakers do it differently, I have learned a new rule of English. – gotube Sep 12 '22 at 13:51
@gotube First, I did not say that some native speakers use an article there. Secondly, I (very deliberately) did not say it was not correct; I said it was not standard. I think the statistics bear this out. – Especially Lime Sep 12 '22 at 17:20
@EspeciallyLime We might be talking at cross purposes here. I think you're saying that it's more common to talk about English in general than it is to talk about types of English in the context of a sentence like, "The novel is written in (an) elegant English". All good. I agree. I'm saying that in the context where your intention is "an elegant type of English", an article is required. Neither of us are talking about what's "standard". Your answer still says, "You should not say ... 'an elegant English'", so yes, you are saying it's not correct. – gotube Sep 12 '22 at 17:45
@gotube Yes, we definitely are talking about cross purposes then. When I said "some people sometimes use an article here", I was referring to Colin Fine's example of "a quiet compassion". I don't think you can tell from Ngrams whether anyone says "an elegant English" with English being a noun, since the phrase so easily occurs with English being an adjective. – Especially Lime Sep 12 '22 at 18:39
@EspeciallyLime Oh phew! I didn't find any examples of "an elegant English" not being an adjective, but I easily found lots of "an English" being a noun by searching for "an English with" on Ngrams – gotube Sep 12 '22 at 19:29

Does the noun 'English' have to be always uncountable?

4 Answers4