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fruit & ice-cream

Hela

Senior Member
Tunisia - French
Good morning everyone,

Are "fruit and ice-cream" uncountable here:

"I would like both fruit and ice-cream." is "fruits and ice-creams" possible ?

All the best,
Hela
In general, it's not really possible to have "both fruits and ice creams" work in a sentence, at least not one that I can imagine. It certainly wouldn't be made plural because you had a combination of two things, if that's what you were thinking.

If a person is being offered either fruit or ice cream or both for dessert, he could answer, "I would like both fruit and ice cream."
JamesM: At the market, could you buy "fruits and [different flavors of] ice creams?
It would seem that fruit and ice cream would be used propertly in the plural in this sentence: In Wisconsin you will find all the ice creams known to mankind, but they don't deal in a variety of fruits. Otherwise, they are uncountable. Also, if you opt to use the plural, you should be prepared to defend your choice. English speakers will likely take exception to that usage.
Thank you for your explanations. Have a nice day.
In Wisconsin you will find all the ice creams known to mankind, but they don't deal in a variety of fruits.

I must disagree; the above sentence doesn't make sense, and is grammatically incorrect. It looks like somebody was stretching to find a way to use fruit and ice cream in the plural. Since they are uncountable nouns, the correct sentence would have to be:

In Wisconsin, you will find all the kinds of ice cream known to mankind, but the ice cream doesn't do business with fruits, so you'll have to be heterosexual if you want to buy any.
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