When is it acceptable to use "a homework?". As an ESL practitioner, I had to look it up, and found a source which says "a homework" is only acceptable among native speakers. So, should non-native speakers just stick to "homework" as uncountable?
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4In the US "homework" is considered to be a "mass" noun and articles are not used. (May be different in the UK or India.) A "homework assignment" is an individual piece of homework and does take an article. – Jan 13 '16 at 03:56
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1Native speakers don't say a homework. – GoDucks Jan 13 '16 at 04:16
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Possible duplicate of Is "homework" countable? – Jan 13 '16 at 05:17
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Whereas it's foreseeable that some native English speaker could get away with saying, "I have a homework due in second period," to mean that they have a singular homework assignment due then, it isn't standard fare. Native speakers don't say it this way. In 22 years of schooling, from kindergarten through my PhD, I've never heard anyone say it like that. Perhaps the reference is saying that a native speaker could get away with it, while a ESL student could not, which is probably true. Rest assured that "homework" remains an uncountable noun.
Benjamin Harman
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1I am old enough to remember when in Britain it wasn't called homework, it was called prep (preparation). In the British public-school (meaning private) system, historically children did not go home. The posh classes sent their little darlings to Dickensian boarding schools which were more like fierce prisons. But words like prep, and matron lingered on into the day-systems of the 1950s. Now prep was not a mass noun. In our first year we got two preps a night e.g. Mon-Maths & French; Tues Latin & Biology etc. – WS2 Jan 13 '16 at 09:50
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@WS2 : Sounds absolutely lovely. 'Please, sir, I want some more.' – Benjamin Harman Jan 13 '16 at 10:34
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In general, you should try to avoid saying "a homework." (As a native speaker, it sounds very strange)
The best reason I can think of why it sounds strange is because the word is indefinite in size. Saying "a" homework contradicts its nature of being indefinite by assigning a size to something that is arbitrary. For example, you can say that I have seven "assignments", but I cannot say that I have seven "homeworks".
(Depending on what your native language is, this may or may not feel natural)
