Should one say "too many refried beans", or "too much refried beans"? (lemmy.sdf.org)

submitted 2 months ago by xia@lemmy.sdf.org to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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"Too many" kinda sounds right to my ear because beans is plural, but the second logically seems right because its served by volume and is not 'countable' as ordinary (non-destroyed) beans might be.

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[-] woop_woop@lemmy.world -2 points 2 months ago

Do you own too much pairs of jeans or too many pairs of jeans?

[-] xia@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 2 months ago

Well, if they are neatly hung and countable, I have too many. If they are in a wash basin dissolved in acid (akin to refried beans), then maybe I have too much?

[-] woop_woop@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Too much what? The point I was making was a singular plural unit, just like an amount of (singular) refried (plural) beans.

Too many refried beans.

[-] JustZ@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

But you can count how many pairs of jeans someone has.

this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2024

84 points (98.8% liked)

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