Watermelons are vegetables.

[popri]

Which sentences are correct? Which sentences sound natural?

(1) Watermelons are vegetables.
(2) A watermelon is a vegetable.
(3) Watermelon is a vegetable.

When I checked them in Yahoo USA, it seems that (2) and (3) are mostly used.
Is (1) unnatural to you all native speakers?

(By the way, a watermelon is categorized as a vegetable in Japan. Also, sentences are supposed to be used in daily conversation. )

 

[Tdol]

I don't mind it, though aren't they berries?

 

[popri]

Thanks for your comment.

Do you mean berries as tomatoes, peaches, and oranges? It could be, but I didn’t know the word to describe those foods although I went into four-year-college. I think berries as strawberries and blueberries would be common, but the other meaning would be a little specialized. Don’t you think so?

The reason that watermelon is considered as a vegetable is because it blooms, bears fruit, and dies within a year. This is the definition of a vegetable in Japan. You've confused me.

 

[emsr2d2]

In the UK, watermelons are considered a fruit. I've never encountered anyone calling them vegetables or berries.

 

[Ostap]

Is this one correct, too?

(4) The watermelon is a vegetable.

 

[Rover_KE]

It might be in Japan.

In the UK and North America at least, the watermelon is a fruit.

 

[probus]

Is this one correct, too?

(4) The watermelon is a vegetable.

Yes, grammatically.

 

[popri]

Many people believe watermelons are considered a fruit in Japan, too. So they get surprised when they learn the fact that watermelons are categorized as a vegetable. Well, this doesn’t matter. Let me change the example sentences.

(1) Eggplants are vegetables.
(2) An eggplant is a vegetable.
(3) Eggplant is a vegetable.
(4) The eggplant is a vegetable.

When I think of eggplants as one group, I sometimes want to say "Eggplants are a vegetable". But native speakers don’t say that and you guys say “Egg plants are vegetables”, right?

 

[probus]

and you guys say “Egg plants are vegetables”, right?

Not this guy.

In fact, BrE speakers call that vegetable aubergine. And to us AmE speakers it's all one word: eggplant, not egg plant. (And by the way, in Indian English, it's brinjal.)

 

[Skrej]

(1) Watermelons are vegetables.
(2) A watermelon is a vegetable.
(3) Watermelon is a vegetable.

Grammatically, all are okay.


Botanically speaking, watermelons along with cantaloupes, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squashes, pumpkins, gourds, corn and even beans are fruits because they grow from a flower and contain the seeds of the plant.

However, most people would call all of those except the watermelon and cantaloupes vegetables, because they're not sweet. The sweetness factor isn't a scientific classification, however. Some of these debates between fruit/vegetable (as in the cases of beans and tomatoes) have even become legal battles going all the way to the US Supreme Court. Apparently in the mid-to late 1800's, the US had less weightier legal conundrums than today....

From a botanical perspective, a vegetable is anything where you consume the main plant or parts thereof - roots such as carrots and beets, tubers such as potatoes and yams, edible greens such as lettuce and chard, edible stems such as celery and asparagus, flowers such as broccoli and cauliflower, and bulbs such as onions and garlic.

Then again, the average person doesn't tend to adhere to strict scientific definitions and develops their own personal criteria for classifying things. Indeed, although most Americans would call a watermelon fruit, the odd people of Oklahoma actually declared it their state vegetable....

 

[Skrej]

Many people believe watermelons are considered a fruit in Japan, too. So they get surprised when they learn the fact that watermelons are categorized as a vegetable. Well, this doesn’t matter. Let me change the example sentences.

(1) Eggplants are vegetables.
(2) An eggplant is a vegetable.
(3) Eggplant is a vegetable.
(4) The eggplant is a vegetable.

Again, grammatically all of these are correct.

I think most English speakers would refer to the eggplant/aubergine as a vegetable, yes, but again from a strictly botanical standpoint, it's a fruit because it grows from a flower and contains its own seeds for reproduction. Most people don't know or don't care about the scientific distinction however, and the distinction becomes more of a social one regarding how such things are prepared and eaten, or some other criterion such as sweetness.

 

[probus]

A great example is the tomato. Scientifically it is a fruit but in culinary terms it's a vegetable.

 

[emsr2d2]

"Intelligence is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Common sense is not putting it in a fruit salad." (British saying)

 

[Rover_KE]

... BrE speakers call that vegetable aubergine.

We do, indeed—almost exclusively. [link]

True story:

SMALL BOY IN SUPERMARKET: What's these big purple things, Mum? Mum! Mum! What's these big purple things?

(peering closely at the label) Aborigines?

 

[Tdol]

A great example is the tomato. Scientifically it is a fruit but in culinary terms it's a vegetable.

Wikipedia give both as a kind of berry, which is a subset of fruits:

Tomato - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watermelon though this is a specialised type - the pepo - that I had never heard of, and have since learned that it includes cucumbers, which we shouldn't get Skrej started on.

 

[popri]

Not this guy.

In fact, BrE speakers call that vegetable aubergine. And to us AmE speakers it's all one word: eggplant, not egg plant. (And by the way, in Indian English, it's brinjal.)

Thanks for correcting my English. I simply messed up. It's obvious when you look at other sentences.