1

I am looking at the following sentence and can not understand whether I have to use a or not.

I am a ... with [a] passion for ... . From my point of view passion is a noun and therefore it should have an article. But on the internet I have seen people using it with and without an article. Can anyone tell the correct way? (also would be nice to tell why).

Improve this question
5
  • 2
    Trying to apply rules that govern the use of the definite vs the indefinite vs no article is going to lead to frustration, probably sooner rather than later. 'He has [great] passion [in his life etc]' is idiomatic (ie widely used), and so is 'He has a [great] passion for'. But 'He has passion for' is also used quite widely. It depends on whether one sees 'passion' as countifiable (= an instance of a passionate involvement) or not. 'He has love for' and 'He has a love for' are similar choices; 'He has liking for' would sound wrong to many.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Sep 22, 2014 at 6:57
  • @EdwinAshworth thank you. So basically in your opinion there is nothing wrong with both way of writing it? Sorry for asking, but just to be sure that you are a native speaker (which I am not): are you from UK?
    – Salvador Dali
    Commented Sep 22, 2014 at 7:02
  • 2
    I'm a UK speaker; I've lived in England for 60+ years, and have come to terms with many of the false teachings about the English language one encounters if one studies the subject in any depth. I'd use 'He is a man with a passion for the poor and downtrodden', and wouldn't myself omit the 'a'. But I'd not consider its omission a grammatical error, seeing this construction used quite commonly on the internet; I would, however, regard it as a poor style choice. 'Now that is a man with passion' would cause me no such problem.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Sep 22, 2014 at 7:27
  • @EdwinAshworth thank you. Can you please post it as an anwer, so that I can acknowledge your help.
    – Salvador Dali
    Commented Sep 22, 2014 at 8:00
  • Thanks, but you already have done. I'm not sure it's a question with enough generality for answers to warrant star billing. The idiosyncrasies of article usage in English are legion; Collins Cobuild have a 100+ page monograph on the subject.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Sep 22, 2014 at 12:07

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

Passion is a noun that may be used as "countable" or "uncountable" depending on usage pattern and/or context e.g:

Uncountable

 passion (for sb) : a very strong feeling of sexual love

Countable

 passion (for sth) : a very strong feeling of liking sth; a hobby, an activity, etc. that you like very much

Please check Oxford Dictionary

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .