Why do some nouns need to be in the plural for that structure to work, while some are ok in the singular? E.g.: I love pizza, I love beef, etc.
I always thought it was a matter of countable x uncountable, but "cakes", for example, is countable.
Grammatical Number – Why ‘I Love Cake’ but ‘I Love Cars’?
countable-nounsgrammatical-numbernounsuncountable-nouns
Best Answer
Often the countable and uncountable versions of an English noun will refer to different things. For example, "hamburger". If you say,
it means that you enjoy the actual ground meat, in all its various uses. On the other hand,
means you like the specific use of ground beef in a hamburger, with the bun, lettuce, pickles, tomato, etc. You can also say:
to refer to the specific object, with the relevant qualifiers.
In a similar way:
These distinctions seem idiomatic and can only be learned by exposure, memorization, and practice.
However (in general) when a noun's countable form and uncountable form both refer to (more or less) the same thing, it seems you use the uncountable form to refer to the generic or overarching concept, and you use the countable form to refer to specific instances or examples of that thing. With cake:
Note also a similar use when talking about wishes or desires:
As with anything in English, there may be exceptions.