# On an apparent " masstermization" phenomenon in contemporary informal French: " il y a de la jolie nana par ici" Tags: terminology, language-change, french, articles, countability - Score: 5 - Views: 252 - Answers: 2 - Answered: yes - Asked by: user24680 - Asked: 2019-05-30 - Edited: 2019-05-31 - Site: linguistics ## Question I have noticed a tendency to " masstermize" nouns in contemporary informal French, I mean to use nouns as mass terms ( uncountable), though they cannot be strictly used in this way. What I call " masstermize" a noun is to use a countable noun in the following way : verb + partitive article ( du , de la ) + noun. Maybe one could call this phenomenon " stuffization" : treating a whole set of discrete entities as a stuff. For example : "attention, il y a du niveau!" ( in order to express the fact that the persons performing a certain activity have an amazingly good level) " il faut remettre du lien social" ( it is necessary to strengthen social links that are getting looser and looser) (https://www.vivrelyonne.fr/nos-actions/creer-du-lien-social-avec-des-ateliers-des-rencontres-des-chantiers) " là on va être sur de la chaussure de sport" ( a f