Sugar vs. Sugars

[Edithe1011]

I've always thought that sugar and water were both uncountable nouns.  Is that wrong?  Can you say "sugars" or "waters" and still be grammatically correct?  What is the rule? ???

[SAment56]

I agree, they are uncountable nouns.

I have read "the waters of the sea" in books though.

I suppose you could say sugars if you were refering to different types of sugar, say fructose, glucose and lactose. Maybe that is why people say that their sugars are low, when they mean that their blood sugar is low.

[cvpeters]

I think its a bit archaic but Waters can be correct when you are referring to types "Discovering the WATERS of Africa"  or  even when ordering I think you can say we would like to have 5 waters...great question hard to explain

[SAment56]

It is really old fashioned! If you said "the waters of the deep" people would just think you were strange.

We do say 5 waters, but I suppose what you should really say is 5 bottles of water or 5 glasses of water.

[Leez]

They are considered both countable and uncountable nouns depending on how you use them?

SUGAR:

UNCOUNTABLE EXAMPLE: Is there sugar in this tea?
COUNTABLE: How many sugars [meaning teaspoons of sugar/how many blocks of sugar] do you take in your tea?

WATER:
Water is generally always uncountable unless you are using the phrase "murkey waters/uncharted waters" etc...to mean dangerous/unknown experiences/situations.

The previous example given "How many waters do you want?" is a shortening down of "How many bottles/cups of water do you want?" So in this case it's not so much that water is plural as the number of containers is made plural.

[Edithe1011]

Thanks for the responses everyone.  :)

[Paul]

Uncountable nouns can become countable in their collective form.

Have some brown sugar.
A spoonful of white sugar.
You have two sugars.
(or Two types of sugar.)

Dirty tap water.
Expensive Rather cheap bottled water.
Waters of Korea.
(or Two types of water.)

The thing is, plurals in this form aren't used very often because they just simply don't come up. Here's couple of overly melodramatic examples that will segue into a common expression:

I dinged up my leg over the weekend, so I'm in some pain.
I have two 4th and one 3rd grade CD whose interfaces are a pain in the arse.
In general, I have some aches and pains.