Consider this sentence
She always dreamed of man / a man / the man like you.
What is the difference between them?
-
1Hello and welcome to EL&U. The site is set up as a reference repository. If you click the articles tag, you'll find an extensive set of questions about articles, including some that are similar to yours. After going through them, if you find that they don't answer your question, please link to one or two relevant past questions and explain what still puzzles you. You can use the edit link to do this.– LawrenceAug 27, 2018 at 7:17
Add a comment
|
1 Answer
She always dreamed of man like you.
This is ungrammatical. In order for it to make sense without an article, it would need to be men (plural).
She always dreamed of a man like you.
This is fine.
She always dreamed of the man like you.
While this is syntactically sound, it is effectively nonsensical. There are bound to be many men who, in some way, are like you—not just a single, specific man.
These variations all work in the right context:
She always dreamed of men like you.
She always dreamed of a man like you.
She always dreamed of the man.
She always dreamed of a man.
She always dreamed of men.
answered Aug 27, 2018 at 7:21
