For a while they thought the dictionary did say this, but it was soon realised that their interpretation was a bit naive. They had hoped that a noun specified as a "mass noun" would automatically be unable to take a plural form, but the definitions of brandy and whisky, amongst others, soon showed that this was too inflexible. They accepted that they would sometimes have to look at the wording of the definition and make a subjective judgment as to whether a word has a countable sense and can therefore be pluralized. The "items you could order in restaurant" rule is a attempt to give a generalised ruling in a broad area. It's not perfect, but, bearing in mind that we're talking about a television programme which has to make sense to all its viewers, it's a lot better a rule which says whiskies - yes; vodkas - no.

Simple it certainly ain't.

What the hell is a 'pooter'?

Not filmed as far in advance as I thought. Michael Vaughan is filming his stint in DC today for episodes to be shown week beginning 27th June

How awful is the challenger today?!

Worst player I've ever seen on today. Had to feel sorry for him though

125-19. Ouch.

Perhaps he was distracted by something?

I bet the bloke who nicked Rachel's bikes ony wanted the saddles.

Aye. I bet she's finished off more pensioners than Harold Shipman!

Oh God help us all , damn my eyes, that could the worst outfit EVER, even counting Carol's 1980s abominations.

Like a bloody extra from The Famous Five Go To Primark.

Please Rachel, for pity's sake, wear the Black PVC Catsuit tomorrow.

Agreed. That was terrible today. Like she'd just been on the golf course

I don't know anything about a restaurant rule but to disallow 'beers' (if that's what was done) would be stupid by any standards. There are thousands of brands of beer on the market. If you have a bottle each of two different brands you have two different BEERS and you can't substitute the mass noun in that context.

'pooter' (all lower case) is in the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary both as a noun and as a verb so I cannot imagine why it would not be in the Oxford dictionary that Countdown uses. If it's not, then that's a bad advertisement for the reference book..

I agree it should be in the dictionary but it's not, "beer" is clearly marked as a mass noun. You need clear rules and the obvious thing is to follow the dictionary as they do with everything else other than this "restaurant rule". Sometimes Suzy allows mass noun plurals and sometimes she doesn't, it's very arbitrary and unfair on the contestants - it has changed the result in the past.


I remember Suzy disallowing this before and I've just checked my ODoE and it definitely isn't in - mine is the previous issue so it could be in the latest but it's not a new term so I don't know why it would have been added this time around (it probably hasn't). Since it's not in it can't be allowed, "beers" should be the same. (Both words should really be in the dictionary but they aren't).

It's a device used by people (often entomologists but not exclusively) to collect insects. It's basically a couple of tubes going into a jar, you place one tube near the insect suck on the other one and the insect is sucked into the jar.

It's a very common and well known device, much more so than many of the words in the dictionary.

i have a 10 year old Chambers dictionary and it is in there

We need to be told what is the tie-in with Oxford Dictionaries and why one of their publications (apparently with connections to the Dark Ages) is used as the sole source of reference. Do they subsidise the programme? Or is it to do with Suzie working for them?

A far wider range of words and meanings is available in Chambers or Collins (for example ) and they are not so stuffy.

P.S. I had two beer in the pub this evening. Does that make any sense?

No, but would you say that? Wouldn't you be more likely to say "Two pints"?

These days I would say that I had a few beers or pints and might suggest to someone that we meet for a few beers rather than pints, more prevalent I would say since the vogue for drinking from the bottle in the 80s

No, because I don't drink pints. My beer of choice (in pubs) comes in bottles.

Different dictionaries have different choices. On Countdown "entrail" is disallowed (correctly according to the rules) because it's only allowed as a plural noun (entrails) in the ODoE but is in my old Chambers it's in as a verb.

I don't know what the tie in is but they do have to choose a publication and stick with it otherwise the programme becomes impossible to run, personally I prefer Chambers but the important thing is to have a reference that is a god for the programme.


That makes no sense but that doesn't mean "beers" should be allowed by Countdown. My own thought is that the Oxford dictionaries in one way seem behind the times in not allowing common terms such as "two beers" but at the same time allowing all sorts of new "twitter babble" that most of us have never heard of.

Greg Scott is one of today's contestants!

'Can I have a kiss....er consonant, Rachel. Ha ha. The man is a genius!

You can't blame a man for trying

Being somewhat of a pedant I expect you would have two glasses of beer or two bottles of beer - the same with vodka or whisky. It is the container that would be plural not the beer. Personally I'd rather have a Margarita.