Armorel Young: 7:24pm Oct 10, 2007: For me "three foundations" doesn't work, because it sounds as though the analogy is with the foundations of a building but a building only has "foundations" in the collective sense - you can't have 2 or 3 of them. Hilary Davies: 9:21am Oct 11, 2007: Armorel's right about the "foundations" - they aren't countable.
Many thanks, Stephen, and to all who contributed. Thanks also Armorel - of course, foundations can only be collective. Schoenes Wochende to you all! M. 4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer
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Explanation: is whhat I have often used and read in similar contexts
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 3 mins (2007-10-10 19:13:07 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
"based on the following three pillars" is fine
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 4 mins (2007-10-10 19:14:21 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
googl "based on" & pillars, you get more than 2 million hits
Stephen Sadie Germany Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 49
Note from asker to answerer
Many thanks, Stephen, and to all who contributed. Thanks also Armorel - of course, foundations can only be collective. Schoenes Wochende to you all! M.
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +5