Natalie, Your "state" vs. "instance" distinction sounds right on the money to me. The word is usable in either sense, e.g. "Senator Pouncetrifle faced the latest in a string of embarrassments today as his former finance advisor admitted changing the status of some of his campaign funds" vs. "Senator Pouncetrifle has had to deal with a lot of embarrassment recently." ---- Bill Spruiell From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Natalie Gerber Sent: Thursday, September 20, 2007 3:22 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: question on countable and uncountable nouns Hello: I would be grateful for your thoughts as to whether or not embarrassment is a countable or uncountable noun or both. In the phrase "to protect the State Department from political embarrassment" it seems to me to be an uncountable noun; yet in the phrase "an embarrassment of riches," embarrassment follows the property of a countable noun, i.e., it can be modified by the indefinite article. Can one say I faced several embarrassments as opposed to I faced several kinds of embarrassment? i.e., embarrassment as a count noun is an instance of embarrassment whereas embarrassment as a noncount noun is the state of being embarrassed? And is there a reliable resource for checking the status of common nouns? Thanks for your thoughts- Natalie Gerber SUNY Fredonia To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/ To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/