Questions tagged [articles]
Use this tag for questions about the usage of articles (e.g. a, an, and the).
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Connotation of "for" / "for the"
I asked this question on ELL and got a satisfactory answer about whether "A new material for manufacture of bricks" is a correct title for a scientific article.
However, it seems that ELL is ...
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Is it true that "all the" means "all of the" and "some" can mean "some of the"? If so, why are they omitted in different ways? [closed]
As far as I know, "all the" is actually an informal version of "all of the", see, e.g., all + noun, all + the noun, all of the + noun, all of + noun, which one is right?.
Also, in ...
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A/an + adj. + weather [duplicate]
We can say,
"I had a delicious breakfast"
because of the adjective, as opposed to
"I had breakfast",
where we don't use an indefinite article. As in this former case we have ...
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Differences in asking what the time is [migrated]
What is the time?
What time is it?
What are the differences between the above two sentences?
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usage of "the" - "listen to the TV", or "listen to TV"
Question:
When we only listen to the sound of that machine (TV), not watching its screen, which is appropriate to say "listen to the TV" or "listen to TV"?
Background:
When we ...
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Use of definite article in school grade names
I'm a younger speaker from Chicago. All throughout my education, I've noticed two different ways in which people can refer to grade levels. One includes the definite article and one does not. For ...
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"a" vs "the" articles: an object identified by another object
I am confused whether I should use "a" or "the" when I refer to an object given/identified by some other object.
For example:
The package is now in [a / the] deposit box with the ...
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Zero article usage before countable nouns [duplicate]
I came across the following sentence while reading "A Clash of Kings" book by George R. R. Martin:
He liked to watch the windows begin to glow all over Winterfell as
candles and hearth ...
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Does 'angle' as a noun necessarily receive a definite article?
Here is the sentence in dispute:
In humans, the femoral angle shows no correlation with femoral length.
The question: why would 'femoral angle' receive a definite article, but not 'femoral length'? ...
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"A" and "an" with interjections [duplicate]
Basically I know how "a" and "an" are used:
a member
an adult member
but how is the same handled when the middle word is inserted parenthetically or even in brackets:
I met a ...
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Is there any historical basis for pronouncing the “Ye Olde …“ with a /j/?
It is my understanding that the article ye as used in archaic spellings such as “Ye Olde Yereminne Shoppe” originates from spelling þe as ye with moveable type when the typeface did not feature the ...
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Hello, I need help in understanding the grammatical tense of this phrase [closed]
It is easy to see how primitive warfare might sometimes have beneficial environmental effects; it is not clear how they could amount to a cause of primitive warfare.
Could you tell me, please, what ...
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Article usage when talking generally (not about specific things) [closed]
I have a question about article usage. I have two sentences and I'm struggling with the articles in the second sentence:
There may be invoices on each table.
When (?) invoices lying on (?) table ...
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Article: An univesity or A university [duplicate]
U article
hello guys
Some days ago, I heard one thing from my teacger, he said an university is wrong and we have to say a university.
He called this knowledge: phonology and phonetic.
Can you explain ...
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Why does generic “the” sound wrong when referring to some classes of things?
“The” can be used as a generic term for a class of things, e.g. “The elephant is the largest land animal.” This sounds fine, as does the more specific “The African elephant has larger ears than the ...
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Generalising about things in English
I have come across the following sentence in the article noted below:
A growing plant requires water and minerals. The plant must also have
sunlight. The minerals must include nitrates and the water ...
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What's it called when a word that starts with a vowel takes the 'n' from 'an' (the indefinite article) and puts it on the word?
I don't exactly know how to describe it, but I've heard of this happening in English before. I'm pretty sure the word 'newt' is an example of this. From what I've heard, the word used to be 'ewt', ...
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Unobvious usage of articles "The" and "A" [closed]
Some examples needing an explanation, thank you for the help.
"I came up with (an) idea, we can do..." We should use "an", shouldn't we? But why, if we have a specific idea ...
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Can articles be omitted in instructions? [duplicate]
On a fire extinguisher's cover, "In case of fire, break glass" may be written.
As you see, in short, instructional contexts, one often finds articles being omitted. Is this grammatically ...
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What is the reason for the absence of articles in in "... with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door" in "The Raven"?
The seventh stanza of Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven reads as follows:
Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,
In there stepped a stately Raven of the saintly days of yore;
...
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Why is an "a" article being used here? I would use "the" instead
The Senate late Thursday passed a House-approved bill to raise the debt ceiling and cap government spending for two years, sending the legislation to President Joe Biden’s desk .
https://www.cnbc.com/...
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"in the Hebrew it ..." vs "in Hebrew it ..." - what is the difference of meaning in this paragraph of Milton and in general?
In book one of The Doctrine & Discipline of Divorce, it is written:
The cause of divorce mention’d in the Law is translated some uncleannesse, but in the Hebrew it sounds nakednes of ought, or ...
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How many "the"'s are needed in the phrase "the A of the B of the C ..."? [closed]
Here's an example from Wikipedia:
Statement: ... Suppose a function g ... has the set of discontinuity points D_g ...
Proof: By (the) definition of the continuity of the function g(·), ...
(The ...
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Does an unstressed 'a + noun' become 'an + noun' in spoken English when the noun starts with an 'h'? [duplicate]
I am what most of the world considers a "non-native" speaker of English. I, however, consider myself a "native" speaker of English because:
I grew up speaking English since birth,
...
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answer
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Including an article if the following phrase already contains it
For example, when referencing a webpage:
Visit the "The Performers" page to learn about our musical lineup.
In this case, I want to tell someone to visit a webpage entitled "The ...
3
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2
answers
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Why is it OK to drop articles in “Leopard Rock is fortress and home”? [duplicate]
In episode one of the National Geographic documentary The Savage Kingdom, there is this line which you hear said (and see in the subtitles) there:
Leopard Rock is fortress and home.
The line reads ...
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*an unitary operator* or *a unitary operator* [duplicate]
The rule that I usually use in such cases is that *an* precedes a vowel sound, while *a* is used before a consonant sound. I understand sound as different from letter - conventionally u would be ...
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Article usage: "in context of"
In a scientific paper,in the sentence "in context of information theory, we consider the problem of measuring X " Is an article needed?: "in the/ a (?) context of the(?) information ...
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Is there any difference between "is called the" vs. "is called a"? [closed]
Is there any difference between "is called the" vs. "is called a"?
Examples from ISO/IEC 9899:2011 (E) (emphases added via bold font):
The identifier immediately following the ...
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Skipping an article for a stronger "punch" in a headline --- incorrect or not?
I would like to skip an article in a headline I wrote. It feels right to skip it, the sentence sounds stronger in my opinion. However, all the spelling checkers tell me it's bad English.
Can the "...
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When to use "the" in front of plural demonyms? "Americans" vs "the Americans" vs "the American people"?
When do you use the before plural demonymic expressions like "Americans", "British people" or "Chinese people"?
Chinese people celebrate Lunar New Year on the first days ...
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(The) unemployment in the country has fallen recently
I have been recently wondering about the reason why is "the" omitted in such a phrase like the one quoted below.
"The unemployment in the country has fallen recently."
My ...
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Looking to understand definite article use when referring to specific places [closed]
I'm trying to understand why, in certain situations, we sometimes do/don't use the definite article 'the' when referring to proper nouns (in this example, bars from my undergrad).
Specifically:
"...
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Omiting the article before "Challenges" [closed]
I am overthinking a little issue for a while now. For a new campaign I am working on I would like to say "Addressing Challenges of Millennials".
Do I have to use "the" before ...
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2
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"First" with no article?
This is a paragraph from a newspaper:
An analysis of sleep found that people get more REM sleep in winter.
If the findings can be replicated (...), this would be first evidence
for a need to adjust ...
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When using the acronym LTO (limited time offer), do I put a or an before LTO? [duplicate]
I'm creating an email for my customers regarding limited time offers; however, I'm using the acronym LTO.
Do I put an a or an before LTO?
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Using the definite article with proper names
Please explain the rule behind using the definite articles with names given after a person. For instance,
the Planck constant, the Riemann tensor, the Weyl transformation, the Boltzmann constant, the ...
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Using the indefinite article after a demonstrative pronoun
Why in the sentence
This is a great party!
use the indefinite article a rather than the definite article the? After all, the demonstrative pronoun This indicates that the conversation is about a ...
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The New Year or New Year
Do we use articles with the names of celebrations? Maybe we can but haven't got to, that is, it's optional?
I shan't have written my essay by the time [the] New Year begins.
user470503
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Context Defined Nouns (the use of the definite article)
I've been doing a research on articles, trying to create a set of reliable rules for my students and I've completed the major part of it, however, there still remain some inconsistencies with bare ...
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Which is correct between "is called" and "is called the" when writing a definition?
The special type of periodic motion where the restoring force is
proportional to the magnitude of the displacement of the body from the
mean position and acts in the direction opposite to the ...
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Article usage when a noun phrase is modified by "of..."
A rule of thumb is that when a noun phrase is modified by an "of..." phrase, it is accompanied by "the."
He is the author of 14 cookbooks.
They are not the playthings of whimsical ...
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If an article should be used before a noun?
Suppose that, in my experiments, I have a number of cubes and a number of spheres. The volumes of cubes and spheres are not fixed. Now, I want to express this feature. I do know that the sentence
The ...
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What is the difference between 'more than a half' and 'more than half' [duplicate]
When shall I place an article before the fraction 'half'?
For example, there are many writings that places 'a' before half in 'more than a half' and others won't.
more than a half
more than half
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Is adjective ellipsis possible when coordinating between uncountable nouns and countable nouns preceded by articles?
A sentence like "The man has white hair and beard" is totally acceptable in languages without countable/uncountable nouns or articles, and languages where modifiers follow the head noun (...
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Articles in time structures, grammar or style?
"Are you asking about the implications of using the definite article in general (which is an English language/usage question) or about its use in this particular song?"
I had asked about &...
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Choose between a and the article in a question without context [closed]
Why we say
How to cross the road?
meanwhile, we also say
How to read a book?
As far as I know, we use "the" when there's some context. For example, I have a car, and I want to paint it, ...
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Is it 'a bright orange of the sunrise' or 'the bright orange of the sunrise'?
Wisconsin, where the hills roll like green waves to the horizon, where the cheese is a bright / the bright orange of the sunrise, and the winters are long and dark as death.
(Source: Dungeons & ...
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Is there a proper use of the article "the" in broadcasting? [closed]
Meteorologists say, "on average" vs "on the average," when referencing weather data; why?
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Why is there no "the" before the word "war" in this phrase: at the outbreak of war? [duplicate]
Is it a grammatical rule which means there is a list of "you shouldn't use an article here", or is it just a pattern of "the outbreak of something"?
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