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knowledge or knowledges?



 
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ESL Forums | English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
What does the expression "too light on its feet" mean? | development vs improvement
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knowledge or knowledges? Tue May 06, 2008 0:27 am  knowledge or knowledges?
 

What is the difference between "knowledge" and "knowledges"?
And can You give a few samples of the usage of each of them?
Thank You.
Nata
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knowledge or knowledges? Tue May 06, 2008 2:58 am  knowledge or knowledges?
 

.
Knowledge is uncountable.
.
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knowledge or knowledges? Wed May 07, 2008 21:00 pm  knowledge or knowledges?
 

Thank You for your answer, but there are cases where "knowledges" is used.
In relation to the countable / uncountable distinction, it may be of stylistic relevance, in your analysis of a passage, to ask the question whether it is possible for the writer, character, or speaker to use an uncountable noun instead of a countable one, or vice versa. We may also note here that there are some uncountable nouns which are treated as countable in recent English. Words such as 'knowledges' and 'imageries' have appeared in the plural form (and are therefore regarded as countable, although they are traditionally treated as uncountable in English): you may ask yourselves if any stylistic significance is achieved by doing this.
Nata
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knowledge or knowledges? Wed May 07, 2008 23:35 pm  knowledge or knowledges?
 

.
Knowledge is uncountable.
.
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knowledge or knowledges? Thu May 08, 2008 4:42 am  knowledge or knowledges?
 

Hi Nata

I agree with MM that the word 'knowledge' is uncountable.

Nevertheless, I did a search of the NY Times for the word 'knowledges'. There were a few results, but of those, some were actually misspellings or hyphenations of the word 'acknowledges', some seemed to be simple typos, and some appeared to be in texts written by non-native speakers of English. That left just a handful of 'knowledges' and it seemed that what the authors generally meant was 'types of knowledge'.

If I were you, I would not use the word 'knowledge' as a plural. Stick with the traditional, uncountable usage.
.
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