Post B2cEK0o2S2a00N3eKm by jmac@masto.nyc
 (DIR) More posts by jmac@masto.nyc
 (DIR) Post #B2cEJxYgWfW1vsqqUC by jmac@masto.nyc
       2026-01-23T04:40:39Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       “She picked up a dim sum and dipped it into the soy sauce.”
       
 (DIR) Post #B2cEJyuLVcR87Lzet6 by victorgijsbers@mastodon.gamedev.place
       2026-01-24T06:44:45Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @jmac By now, I'm very curious what the problem with this sentence is supposed to be. Is dim sum supposed to not be a countable noun? Or is it just that you don't eat it with soy sauce? Or something else?
       
 (DIR) Post #B2cEJzyHYTBBPqqJf6 by jdyer@mastodon.gamedev.place
       2026-01-24T14:45:29Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @victorgijsbers @jmac it’s like “she picked up a breakfast and dipped it”I am genuinely baffled and I still don’t know what the intent is. Is there some regional slang where this refers to a single thing? Or is this just bad editing?
       
 (DIR) Post #B2cEK0o2S2a00N3eKm by jmac@masto.nyc
       2026-01-24T16:34:57Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @jdyer @victorgijsbers Yes, as another person commented, it sounds to me like ”she picked up a tex-mex and dipped in into the hot sauce.”But a linguist friend dove into it since and has determined that some people really do use “dim sum" as a countable noun, applicable to the individual dumplings-and-such, and that there's precedent for this.The context is that this use appears several times in an audiobook audition script I've been called back to read!
       
 (DIR) Post #B2cEKFAX3CtIYBgoL2 by mistfunk@oldbytes.space
       2026-01-24T16:36:28Z
       
       0 likes, 0 repeats
       
       @jmac @jdyer @victorgijsbers Countable? How many are there? What's the dim sum sum?