On Thu, Jul 20, 2017 at 8:52 PM, Ørjan Johansen <oer...@nvg.ntnu.no> wrote: > On Thu, 20 Jul 2017, grok (caleb vines) wrote: > >> There is some ambiguity of what, exactly, a nickel is. Common >> knowledge tells us it is a metal, but one would rarely refer to an >> amount of nickel as "a nickel" without qualification--a lump of >> nickel, or a vein, or an atom. Nickel is ultimately an adjective in >> this sense--using it as a noun alone is not common in the language and >> grammar used in Quazie's initial statement. > > > As thorough as your judgement is, I'm going to have to withdraw points for > grammatical terminology: > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_noun > > Greetings, > Ørjan.
yeah yeah, it's a collective noun rather than a discrete singular noun. easier to explain as an adjective. lazy. blagh blegh murgh grumble grumble -grok
