Ways of showing partition

Many non-count nouns combine with a set of nouns showing some part of material or abstract notion. Here are some typical partitives for material and abstract nouns:

a slice of bacon a slice of cake	a piece a lump	of coal
a piece a loaf	of bread	a piece a lump	of sugar
a piece a stick	of chalk	a blade of grass
a piece a bar	of chocolate	a piece a block	of ice
a piece a sheet	of paper	a piece a strip	of land

a grain of rice		a piece an article	of furniture
a pile a heap	of rubbish	a piece of evidence   a fit of passion   a piece of research
a piece a word	of advice
a piece an item	of information, news

§ 178. In some cases there is no obvious logical reason for the as­signment of various English nouns to the count or non-count class. In Russian and English the attribution of the corresponding nouns may be different. Here are some cases when the classes of nouns in English and Russian do not coincide:

English non-count nouns	Russian count nouns
advice (they gave us some valuable advice) news progress (they are making slow progress) research (do some research) knowledge (you have a fairlygood knowledge of the subject)	совет/советы новость/новости успех/успехи исследование/исследования, научная работа знание/знания

English singular invariable nouns	Russian plural invariable nouns
ink cream yeast money hair fruit applause chess	чернила сливки дрожжи деньги волосы фрукты аплодисменты шахматы

Note:

Hair is a count noun in the sense of волос, волосок. Fruit as a count noun means kinds of fruit: dried fruits keep long.

English plural invariable nouns	Russian singular invariable nouns
sweepings clothes greens contents odds	cop одежда зелень (овощи) содержание преимущество (спортивное)

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