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britannica.com says "weight" is uncountable here:
(1) My weight is 150 pounds.

But a user on ell.stackexchange.com says "speed" is countable here:
(2) The runner's speed was 6 kilometers per hour.

To me, the structure of sentences (1) and (2) is the same.
Then why is "weight" uncountable whereas "speed" is countable?

Loviii
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3 Answers3

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It is impossible to determine from the example if the words are countable or uncountable. There is no grammatical clue or difference in meaning.

Would it be possible to use a plural in these sentences? Yes (but perhaps odd) Imagine a person whose weight went up and down:

My weights are 150lb in the morning and 155lb in the evening.

Or a runner with different speeds:

The runner's speeds are 6km/hr at a jog but 12km/hr when sprinting.

So in principle, both these could be countable. But these are very odd, artificial constructions.

You can't tell just from the structure if a word is countable or not. Consider:

My cat is white.

My rice is white.

But rice, you know, is uncountable, whereas cat is countable.

But "coffee" you know can be both countable "a coffee" and non-count. So tell me, which one is it:

My coffee is white.

I say you can't tell, and it doesn't matter.

James K
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  • If a person's weight goes up and down from the am to the pm, it is still only weight. My weight is x in the am and y in the pm. – Lambie Dec 04 '23 at 23:30
  • Yes, weight can mean the amount of mass, or the number that represents it, There are two numbers, but the weight is still just weight. So it would normally be uncountable, if you were talking about the numbers, there are two, so plural. But in the singular, there is not way of determining nor is there any different understanding of what is being communicated. – James K Dec 04 '23 at 23:34
  • My weights are 150lb in the morning and 155lb in the evening. That is just nuts, sorry. My weight is x in the morning and y in the evening. Very obvious. Now, you might say: Those weights are odd since they differ by a full five pounds. – Lambie Dec 04 '23 at 23:38
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    Did I understand you correctly?: "Weight" in (1) can be UNCOUNTABLE because we can say: "My weight is different: 150lb in the morning and 155lb in the evening." "Weight" in (1) can be COUNTABLE because we can say: "My weights are different: 150lb in the morning and 155lb in the evening." "Speed" in (2) can be UNCOUNTABLE because we can say: "The runner's speed is different: 10km/hr at a jog and 30km/hr when sprinting." "Speed" in (2) can be COUNTABLE because we can say: "The runner's speeds are different: 10km/hr at a jog and 30km/hr when sprinting." – Loviii Dec 05 '23 at 15:54
  • @Loviii The plural one with weights in the am and pm is simply inaccurate. The same goes for speed. Both, in these contexts. – Lambie Dec 05 '23 at 20:42
  • @Lambie If the sentences above where there are "weights" and "speeds" are unnatural to you, then you believe "weight" in (1) and "speed" in (2) are both uncountable, right? – Loviii Dec 05 '23 at 22:16
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A non-countable noun is one that you don't normally pluralise. There are exceptions to most common non-countable nouns. The frequently-cited example is water. Typically, all liquids are mass nouns, but if you break them down into quantities - eg bottles or glasses - then you can count them. It's normal to order "three beers" or even "three waters" proving that liquids can be pluralised, but what you're really counting is the glasses and bottles the liquid comes in - the individual quantities.

Weight, in the context of your example, is an abstract noun - an intangible, non-physical thing - and these are typically non-countable. "My weight" refers to the concept of weight as a quality a person has, in the same way that 'colour' is abstract in a statement like "my hair colour is brown". But, as with my example of liquids, when you can assign a measurement of weight to multiple things then you can pluralise it. For example you could use the singular noun in a phrase like "I recorded the weight of each family member", but use the plural in a phrase like "then I added all their weights together". Again, although we are pluralising 'weights' what we are really counting is the individual measurements of weight taken for each person. Don't be confused by the noun 'weight' to mean the pieces of metal used on scales and in gymnasiums. Those are a tangible thing, which is why you can count them and it is common to say "I'm lifting weights".

Speed is no different. It is an abstract noun. It is a concept, not a tangible thing. We use it singularly to refer to the concept of speed, but it can be pluralised when referring to individual measurements of speed.

Astralbee
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  • You wrote: "Weight, in the context of your example, is an abstract noun - an intangible, non-physical thing - and these are typically non-countable." But we could also say the same words about "speed" from (2). That is, you consider "speed" uncountable too, right? – Loviii Dec 04 '23 at 23:29
  • weight is a non-physical thing? It is a mass noun, but not abstract or non-physical... – Lambie Dec 04 '23 at 23:31
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    @Loviii yes, exactly. Both weight and speed are abstract and they should be treated the same. They can both be uncountable when referring to the measurement in general, but as soon as you start recording measurements and referring to those individual measurements of speed or weight it is possible to count them. – Astralbee Dec 05 '23 at 08:53
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    @Lambie Of course it is abstract, it is a quality. Here is a guide for English students you might find helpful: http://www.english-for-students.com/abstract-noun.html – Astralbee Dec 05 '23 at 08:57
  • We don't measure "peace" (Uncountable), "compassion” (U), "friendship" (Countable), or an "idea" (C) because they are concepts; intangible and non-physical. The word "air" is also non-tangible. We can't see or touch it as if it were a solid but it's classed as a concrete noun because it “exists“. The nouns "weight" and "speed" are both perceivable, and in the case of "weight", it is physical as we know when something is light or heavy. Additionally, we are able to assess speed and weight accurately, so if these qualities are measurable, why are they classified as abstract? – Mari-Lou A Dec 05 '23 at 10:27
  • I am genuinely curious to know the answer. – Mari-Lou A Dec 05 '23 at 10:28
  • @Mari-LouA weight is an attribute of a physical entity but is not itself a physical entity, something tangible. Is the color "blue" tangible in "blue eyes"? No, it isn't, even though the eyes are a physical reality. But when we come to speak of various shades of blue, we can pluralize: "Can you please send me some color samples of your blues?" – TimR on some device Dec 05 '23 at 11:31
  • @Mari-LouA You've confused intangibility with invisibility. Your example of 'air' is absolutely tangible - it is a mixture of oxygen, nitrogen and other gases, all of which have a physical atomic form, you just can't see them. If you were hit by a very strong gust of air it could knock you over. 'Weight' is an abstract because it is the name given to the effect of gravity on physical matter, just as colour is the name given to the perception of light reacting to other objects. If you are run over by a bus, it isn't 'weight' that has hit you - it is the mass of the bus affected by its velocity. – Astralbee Dec 05 '23 at 12:13
  • I suggest you read these examples for weight from the Oxford Learners Dictionary. It is both countable and uncountable but they do not give an example of countable in the plural. So, I will: He lifts weights twice a week. Anyway, I agree with Mari-LouA – Lambie Dec 05 '23 at 15:48
  • @Lambie your example with "weights" is the practically the same one cited in Astralbee's answer. It was also present before the recent edits. For Astralbee,: is "mass" in "the mass of the bus" an abstract or concrete noun? – Mari-Lou A Dec 05 '23 at 19:16
  • @Mari-LouA The main point for me here is that Astralbee example with the person being five pounds heavier in the pm and calling those two states weights with an s is completely non-idiomatic. Who would ever say that?? Now, that plural of weight as in: My weights in the am and pm are different, or something like that, has been removed by them. – Lambie Dec 05 '23 at 19:27
  • @Lambie the thing about different weights at different times of day was written by James K, not Astralbee. Believing that you have commented under one user's answer when instead it was another happens to me, too! – Mari-Lou A Dec 05 '23 at 20:31
  • @Mari-LouA Whoops, you are right. – Lambie Dec 05 '23 at 20:40
  • @Mari-LouA "mass" is also an abstract noun. "The mass of a bus" is a measurement of mass. That's the thing about abstract concepts - they may define something that in turn helps us to define something else. The reason I made the distinction between weight and mass was not to say one was abstract and one wasn't. I was trying to show how weight is purely conceptual in comparison to 'air' which was the comparison offered up by Lambie. I'm sure you know that in space you would have no weight, but you would still have mass. As would any 'air' particles. – Astralbee Dec 05 '23 at 21:40
  • Actually, it was me who talked about "air". We had better stop here. – Mari-Lou A Dec 05 '23 at 21:50
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The simplest answer to this, that will involve the least "hair-splitting," is "because they are." They're different words. Although it would seem intuitive that they ought to behave the same way, they're not compelled to.

First of all, even "speed" is used much more often in a non-count way than in a count way. We usually talk about "speeds" only when comparing statistics, like "here are the speeds of the top five horses in the race." Now... if I had to talk about the horses' weight... I could maybe imagine saying "Here are the weights of the top five horses." But it would be a little odd. But so would "Here is the weight of the top five horses"; that would make sense only if I'd added the weights together. I would be more inclined to recast the sentence, "Here is the weight of each of the top five horses." And there's no explanation for why other than... words behave differently sometimes.

Andy Bonner
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  • Astralbee said "weight" in (1) and "speed" in (2) are both uncountable. James K said "weight" in (1) and "speed" in (2) can be both uncountable and countable. You wrote "because they are". That is, you consider "weight" in (1) uncountable and "speed" in (2) countable. Could you explain to me please why you think "speed" in (2) is countable? – Loviii Dec 06 '23 at 00:46
  • @Loviii I think you've mistaken Astralbee's overall position; they said "it can be pluralised when referring to individual measurements of speed." – Andy Bonner Dec 06 '23 at 17:35
  • @Loviii Be warned: discussion of "count" and "noncount" nouns is tricky. It only describes what usually happens, and it's often possible to find exceptions. You can also find intentional "misuses," or extended uses. Musicologists have been using the term "musics" intentionally for decades to indicate just how encapsulated a music-culture can be or to communicate a pluralistic rather than universalist approach to the topic. – Andy Bonner Dec 06 '23 at 17:43