‘Your confusion’ or ‘your confusions’

singular-vs-plural

Suppose I talk to five people and they are confused about something. Which expression should I say?

  1. I understand your confusion.
  2. I understand your confusions.

I've searched in the dictionary (OALD) that this noun is both countable and uncountable. This is one of the problems I have when learning English. It's really challenging to me how to know where I should use countable or uncountable form when the noun itself can be both.

This article Uncountable Nouns Can Also Be Countable explains that we can say plastics (we know plastic is uncountable) which means it's possible to pluralize the uncountable noun by adding s or es, even though my friend has confirmed that there's a strict rule for example advice that can't be pluralized.

I mention all of this because I want you to know what I've known and what I haven't understood. What is the best choice between (1) and (2), by the way?

Best Answer

You are correct that it is sometimes unclear when a noun can be considered countable or uncountable. A good dictionary will help, and reading and listening to a lot of English from good sources will help. However, even native English speakers can disagree about this issue.

As FR said in a comment, "confusion" is usually uncountable. I don't recall ever hearing "confusions". However, the American Heritage Dictionary apparently cites this example:

After his awakening to Chicano identity, he briefly mastered his inner confusions and found an articulate voice.

Also, see this SE question: https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/297371/can-confusion-be-plural

"Confusions", therefore, seems to be possible.

(By the way, I would consider "plastic" to be a count-noun when it refers to a specific kind. For example, a manufacturer might say, "This is a good plastic to use for water bottles, but those other plastics are unsuitable.")

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