To say you can't call cartons of milk 'milks'?

[MollyHuaCha]

As in 'I've just put two milks in the trolley?' overheard at the supermarket.

What has happened to the English language?!

I say 'a juice' but that's only to upset DH who can't stand people using it

Milky milky....

I'd say I put 2 two milk in the trolley or get me 2 milk. The plural sounds wrong to me

I'd say how many litres in an English supermarket as there are so many different sized bottles and cartons...

You wouldn't need to say how many litres if you were speaking another member of your own household, and your household only ever bought a certain size.

It is ungrammatical because milk is an uncountable noun.

That doesn't mean you can't use it as short hand. It just means that you'd fail to qualify to work in the NHS as a non native speaker etc.

Generally in the supermarket I'll tell DH to grab one red milk and one green.... that means 4 pints skimmed and 6 pints of semi.

If it was all the same milk I'd specify how many pints e.g. 6, 8, 12 pints

www.ef.com/english-resources/english-grammar/countable-and-uncountable-nouns

"Two milks" is fine according to my personal built-in descriptive grammar. It's not very specific, of course, and it's meaning would depend on context. If I were asking my children what they wanted to drink then tge "milks" would be glasses; if my wife and I were discussing what to buy at the shop then they would be bottles.

Of course, this is still vague. For this reason a discussion of what to buy would be more likely to refer to "two four-pint bottles of milk" or conceivably "two four-pint milks"! After the shopping trip, someone might well ask "Did you get the milks?" though.

My DH says 'I'm just going to make the cup of teas'

Molly says 'Aaaaaaaaagh!'

(Thanks for your replies everyone x)

I work in a school and the children have milk in the morning which I sometimes collect from the fridge for my class and another class. I will ask 'how many milks do you need today?'

All that has happened is that the container, which renders milk countable, has been elided, but because of context, we all know that the speaker doesn't really think "milk" on its own is countable.

Examples like the OP's are often used to show why we shouldn't teach blanket grammar rules to students (especially non native speakers) but use a method whereby rules are extrapolated from examples they come across.

It is ungrammatical because milk is an uncountable noun

Not in the context it is being used, it's easily countable. One (whatever size container of) milk, two (whatever size container of) milks.

Grammatical in the context.

Anyone else thinking of Victoria Wood and two soups ?