The best explanation is habit English is a language, and language has habits Just like the Chinese hiatus, it's just a habit to explain it in a far-fetched way: egg and tomato can mean both a kind of thing and a thing, the former is uncountable, the latter is countable, egg and tomato noodles this way of saying, it means that eggs and tomatoes are the kind of thing that can't be counted; noodles with tomatos and eggs this way of saying, it means that the noodles are mixed with eggs and tomatoes, it's not a thing that can be counted. noodles with tomatos and eggs When said in this way, it means that there are eggs and tomatoes mixed in with the noodles, not one, so it can be counted

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