Hello Mun Kyung!

First of all thanks for the question! Let's see if I can help you with this!

To answer your question, I would say "storage spaces" or "storage units" if you really want to use the word storage, but as soon as you write "There is a storage", or "There are storages", it would be grammatically wrong.

So, generally speaking, you wouldn't say "storages" if we are talking about 창고, or 저장 공간. As soon as you say "storages", it sounds wrong because it is considered as an uncountable noun as you mentioned. Same thing happens to words like "information", "stuff", "money" etc. So usually, the word storage is generally followed with other countable nouns, for instance "storage space", "storage rooms", or "storage units" etc.

However, you will see the plural form of "storage" here and there for a couple of different reasons.

1. It is grammatically wrong, but people just use it anyway.
-> This happens with MANY uncountable nouns. In real life, although not very frequent, you will indeed hear someone saying "coffees", "monies", and "waters" under very specific circumstances. Yes, once again, this is technically wrong, but I am sure this exists in Korean as well. How many times do you see people say "낫다 vs 낳다" or "얻다대고" vs" "어따대고"? This kind of common errors always exists in every language and English is indeed one of them!

2. Only in a very limited & specific setting, it MAY be okay to say the plural form of uncountable nouns.
-> This also could happen when we are talking about a very specific topic, speaking in jargons that are not quite commonly used. In this case, I see that when we use the word "storages" in the data science industry, so not simply your 창고 but things like 기억 장치, or 데이터 저장 공간, you might be able to use "storages", really depending on the context.

I hope this answer helps.

- Mason (Instructor)

Mun Kyung Jung님의 댓글

Mun Kyung Jung 쪽지보내기 메일보내기 자기소개 아이디로 검색 전체게시물 Date 21-02-04 03:12

Thank you so much!!! I didn't know it was actually grammatically wrong. I really appreciate your effort :)