On Friday morning, while rushing off to school, Miriam had a question. It was about putting an "s" on the words "experience" and "cheese". Her 8th grade English teacher (we're talking English for German kids) said those are both "non-count" nouns and you can't make them plural.
I gave her a quick answer, and Miriam said, "I asked my mom because she knows English better than anyone in the universe."
Now that feels totally good. I do enjoy language, and I spend a fair amount of time expressing my opinions about what works and what doesn't. Coming from my fourteen year old, the praise resonated around me as I scribbled her words onto a scrap of paper. "Better than anyone in the universe" is my credential for all the commentary I offer on this blog, I guess. I'll take it--thank you, Miriam!
What did I say in reply (with Markus backing me up)? Of course you can put an "s" on both those words. "I had many different experiences when I was in college." Or "I went to the market and purchased several expensive (whole) cheeses." True, the cheese one is less common. The problem with "experience" is the likelihood of German speakers to say, "I made many experiences at summer camp." (The real problem is how the words collocate.)
Why does an 8th grade English teacher forbid these words as plurals? Because it's too easy to use them incorrectly and because, most of the time, they are used as non-count nouns. "I had a lot of work experience before I went back to graduate school." Or "I bought several different kinds of cheese for the picnic." In a complex world, that's a good approximation of the truth.
Just don't go off making experiences, please (says one of the universe's foremost English authorities).
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