Hi, Ardith Hinton - Alexander Koryagin!
I read your message from 25.11.2023 00:02

Hi, Alexander! Recently you wrote in a message to All:

I learned recently that an English pie can be countable
and uncountable.

Uh-huh. And since you just happen to know an English major who earned her university fees working in the restaurant business...

bla-bla-bla

What does the latter mean?

... I can tell you the average pie is about the size of a dinner plate & may be divided into roughly six or eight pieces, depending on various factors such as what one's customers want &/or how many mouths one is expected to feed. Nowadays I know of a few places around here where one can get individual sizes. Maybe one couldn't years ago, but you didn't say when your excerpt was written. Singletons & childless couples were less common when I was growing up.... :-))

bla-bla-bla

She was sitting at the dining room table with the other
children, two of whom were eating pie and ice cream with
expressions of immense satisfaction."

I understand uncountable ice cream, but I don't understand
uncountable pie. ;-)

Where I come from, ice cream is measured by volume or by weight... and I see you understand that. When you visit a bakery, however, you may notice it offers "pies, cakes, and pastries" for sale. You can purchase one or more such items as you wish or make them yourself at home. Either way I see that in this example there are probably one or more grownups & at least two kids who need to be fed, in which case the thrifty housewife would cut a large pie into servings (or pieces or portions) of whatever size she deems to be most appropriate. :-Q

--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
* Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)

Bye, Ardith!
Alexander Koryagin
english_tutor 2023

---
* Origin: nntp://news.fidonet.fi (2:221/6.0)