If someone terribly damages your belongings such as a car and a laptop, angrily you may say, ‘He did a lot of damages to my car.’ There is a problem with the expression because ‘damage’ in this circumstance is an uncountable noun. This means that it rejects the ‘s’ added to the word. No matter how serious the assault is, all the fellow has done is a serious damage or a lot of damage (not damages) to the item. It does not matter if he or she damaged different parts of the products.
You may, however, wonder why I used ‘damages’ in the opening sentence – If someone damages … The reason is that the word is a verb, not a noun there. This means that, depending on the number of the noun or noun phrase that forms the subject of the clause, we can have ‘damage’ or ‘damages’ as a verb:
I will punish them if they damage the chair. (Correct)
I will punish her if she damages the chair. (Correct)
Another context you can have ‘damages’ as a noun is when used as a legal term, meaning a sum of money claimed for a loss or an injury which the action or inaction of a party caused the other:
The damages he caused to my computer make me feel like hating him. (Wrong)
The damage he caused to my computer makes me feel like hating him. (Correct)
The court awarded N60m damage against the company over the death of the manager. (Wrong)
The court awarded N60m damages against the company over the death of the manager. (Correct)
Another common noun tricky to handle is ‘property’, which is also an uncountable noun when considering an object or objects belonging to a person or institution. As rich as Dangote is, we say he has a lot of property, including his innumerable trucks, and mega companies, especially the refinery that will soon come on stream. So, Dangote is always investing in security because he does not want anyone to toy with his property – not properties.
Yet, like ‘damages’, ‘properties’ also exits in another context. In real estate, we talk of properties – houses, land and other related things. So, the same Dangote with whom we cannot use ‘properties’ when considering his general possessions, can be said to be putting up some properties for sale if he decides to sell some plots of land, a house and, say, a warehouse. If he is selling a unit of these, he is selling a property; if more than one, he is selling the properties. The super-rich man hardly does this, but he can and he does acquire properties.
Consider these:
The pastor said it was wrong for the landlord to sell off the tenant’s properties after ejecting him. (Wrong)
The pastor said it was wrong for the landlord to sell off the tenant’s property after ejecting him. (Correct)
I learnt Elumelu has a lot of property in Lekki, most of them imposing buildings. (Wrong)
I learnt Elumelu has a lot of properties in Lekki, most of them imposing buildings. (Correct)
The Elumelu example is a bit tricky. A smart person may say, in the first example, what if we are considering both his overall belongings and real estate possessions? Should we still say that ‘property’ is also wrong? I concede that the statement is ambiguous, but, as far as this lesson is concerned, what we have in mind is the business giant’s houses and land.
A good number of people have duly mastered these usages, but they are expressions that one can easily bungle especially when agitated. More importantly, I am bringing them up again to serve as a reminder for pupils who will sit for their WASSCE English on Wednesday as the intrigues between countable and uncountable nouns are often tested in the objective section of the paper. Consider how the handling of advice, information, news, equipment, furniture etc. may also be tested:
The man gave me … but I didn’t take him seriously.
(a) cogent advices (b) a lot of advice (c) a lot of advices (d) a piece of advices
A lot of the news in the five newspapers … about insecurity in the land.
(a) were (b) is (c) have been (d) are
They budgeted N70m to buy … for the governor’s office.
(a) furnishing (b) furniture (c) furnitures (d) sophisticated furnitures
Those who damaged all the newly acquired … have run away.
(a) equipment (b) equipment’s (c) equipments (d) pieces of equipments
Advice, news, furniture and equipment are also all uncountable nouns. They are not to be pluralised the way you do countable ones like chair, phone, bank and street. When we are compelled to show their numbers, we use a piece/pieces of, an item/items of etc, but without adding ‘s’ to the nouns. So, you may give someone a piece of advice, but not an advice or advices; a piece of furniture, not two, some or many furnitures; a lot of equipment, not a lot of equipments and not many equipments.
As a result, the correct options for the above questions are a lot of advice, is, furniture and equipment.
END
Be the first to comment