Questions tagged [definite-articles]
This tag is for questions about the definite article.
821
questions
0
votes
0
answers
37
views
Definite article, italics/quotations for a document name?
The below text is an extract from a document titled Technical Specification 13 Meter Harbor Tug.
Is it sufficient to have the title capitalized or do I need to put it into italics/quotes when ...
0
votes
0
answers
18
views
I'm a bit uncertain about articles usage in the example below [migrated]
"Unfortunately, these screenshot are not a reliable proof of the abscence of funds."
The context is, a user was asked for a certain document to prove that the funds that were sent to him ...
2
votes
1
answer
71
views
Which determiner is correct, "this" or "the" in "this/the same key"?
I am helping a friend edit a manuscript for an informal reference book about music. There are occasional instances where determiners are being used in a way that I find unfamiliar or awkward. I'm ...
- 1,179
2
votes
4
answers
1k
views
Why is there no article "the" before "international law"?
Reading through wikipedia's page on international law, I noticed that there is never a definite article "the" before the phrase. It is a set of rules, norms, and standards generally ...
- 47
0
votes
1
answer
37
views
What is the rule for using the definite article in front of a name? [duplicate]
What is the rule on the basis of which there is a definite article in front of the name of a man-made object such as the Challenger or the Titan?
2
votes
1
answer
252
views
"37% of Japanese" vs "37% of the Japanese"
When we refer to certain nationalities, we tend to add "the" to indicate that we are talking about the people and not the language if there is an ambiguity.
Example:
The Chinese speak ...
- 21
2
votes
1
answer
67
views
What's with the definite article in "It was in the bleak December"?
In his classic poem which pretty much everyone knows by heart, Edgar Allan Poe writes as follows:
Ah, distinctly I remember
It was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember
Wrought its ...
- 20.2k
0
votes
2
answers
99
views
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/...
- 101
0
votes
2
answers
65
views
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 ...
- 13
1
vote
1
answer
34
views
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 ...
4
votes
2
answers
1k
views
"the" with nationality - Brits
I know that we have to use 'the' when it comes to groups of people, for example:
The French are good at cooking.
When nouns and adjectives are the same, we can omit 'the'
Americans are good at ...
- 41
-1
votes
1
answer
31
views
When it necessary to add "the" before Ruby Community
The community of the Ruby language has an issue, one of the main resources is not accessible. So I wrote a message in the GitHub:
Ruby Koans is a real treasure of Ruby Community, best way to get into ...
- 121
0
votes
0
answers
31
views
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 ...
0
votes
0
answers
44
views
Nominalized adjectives or nominalized adjective phrases?
Numerous adjectives can be combined with the. Examples include the poor, the limitless, the miraculous, etc. Such constructions are semantically equivalent to nouns. According to Wikipedia:
A ...
0
votes
1
answer
93
views
Uses of definite article before comparative degree [closed]
Here are two sentences from a grammar book:
"He is the stronger of the two."
"Reena is smarter than any other student of her class."
In the first sentence, the definite article (...
- 73
2
votes
4
answers
167
views
(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 ...
- 29
1
vote
1
answer
70
views
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:
"...
- 89
4
votes
1
answer
105
views
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 ...
1
vote
2
answers
98
views
What does "The 300 Light infantry" mean?
Text from Osprey Publishing, the book Saratoga 1777: Turning Point of a Revolution by Brendon Morrissey:
Advance Guard: Col Daniel Morgan
The riflemen had 374 all ranks fit and present out of 578 (...
0
votes
1
answer
63
views
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 ...
- 103
0
votes
0
answers
55
views
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
0
votes
1
answer
59
views
Generalization with plural versus with definite article [closed]
I was studying the usage of definite article in Arabic and I realized I am not on firm grounds in English either.
With respect to either grammar or rhetoric, are there nuances between the following ...
- 1,076
1
vote
1
answer
37
views
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, ...
- 113
0
votes
1
answer
153
views
About the use of definite articles with nouns such as "north, south west..."
Using articles can be confusing sometimes, so when we say "the North pole" it takes the definite article "the " unlike for example "North America" here "the " ...
- 11
0
votes
0
answers
30
views
Math usage: the affine n-space vs affine n-space [duplicate]
In the book Algebraic Geometry by Robin Hartshorne (and many other publications), he writes
We define affine n-space over a field to be the set [...]
and
Our next objective is to show that ...
- 103
0
votes
1
answer
37
views
Using definite article in news item headlines [duplicate]
The CNN headline reads:
Queen won’t return to London to appoint new British PM, for first time in her reign
Why the definite article the is omitted in "for first time" and "Queen"...
- 351
1
vote
2
answers
60
views
When is it appropriate to omit both articles and prepositions together?
I am working on a localisation issue within a project, but I cannot figure out through any of my searches and reference texts if there is a particular set of rules surrounding the omission of articles ...
- 11
-1
votes
2
answers
129
views
Is ‘the’ always necessary in such structures?
For qualitative measures, we have to consider the place of Korean
universities in global rankings, as well as the global rankings of
Korean journals.
Is the ‘the’ necessary in all expressions/phrases ...
- 3,336
0
votes
0
answers
51
views
For Nth time or for a/an Nth time
In an English language class at school, I was taught to always use "the" not "a/an" when I want to use an ordinal number, for example, "for the second time in a row" ...
- 109
0
votes
1
answer
78
views
"run for presidency" or "run for the presidency"
I have a question about "run for presidency"/"run for the presidency"
(in this case, it's about a presidential election)
He will run for the presidency.
He will run for presidency....
0
votes
1
answer
81
views
(In)definite articles with abstract concepts
I am always struggling to figure out whether to use a definite or indefinite article with abstract concepts.
See the following example. Positions in question are marked with (the?):
Section X ...
- 181
2
votes
3
answers
48
views
Usage of articles when the noun is specifically described
In the sentence
We are [a/the] team of six developers working on financial software projects from the USA, Canada, and Australia.
where the word team is described specifically enough so there is ...
- 23
0
votes
1
answer
36
views
Definite article (common area or the common area)
Someone (guess it was the administrator) put a sign on a wall in my building saying "no smoking in common area", now I wonder if that is correct, shouldn't it be "no smoking in THE ...
0
votes
2
answers
197
views
Why can't this noun phrase take 'the' - #the skiing pole
I've been pondering why the following (0-a) cannot take the definite article. Please see 1 through 4. It seems as though when accommodated (by my body and the car in these cases below), the total ...
- 385
0
votes
1
answer
61
views
Using the definite article before adjectives [closed]
It is usual to use the definite article "the" before an adjective referring to a certain group of people. My question is: can we rewrite the following sentence without "the"?
The ...
- 1,440
0
votes
0
answers
35
views
Why has it become preferable to put the definite article in 'Here are the details about…'
Consider the phrases
Here are details about…
Here are the details about…
If you look at google books, both versions exist in edited books written by native speakers. But google NGrams shows that ...
- 12.5k
0
votes
1
answer
63
views
Question on the use of the definite article
In articles and textbooks about computer science, I often see the definite article used in the following ways.
In final testing, the program is tested at the end of its development process.
One ...
- 696
1
vote
1
answer
78
views
When do companies named "(The) X Company" take the definite article?
I work for a company called "x company" where x is a noun that represents our key product- something like book, computer or hamburger.
I've been advised to refer to it as the "x company&...
- 131
0
votes
0
answers
39
views
lacquer finish/a lacquer finish/the lacquer finish [article usage]
I've just read an article about lacquer finish (or should I say a lacquer finish here?), and the use of articles is a bit confusing.
The headline uses the indefinite one, which is kind of clear ...
- 31
0
votes
2
answers
286
views
the semi-final (singular) meaning the team's advancement level in the tournament [closed]
If you meant to convey that they won their quarter-final game and are now going to play at the semi-final level (in a single-elimination tournament), you would often say 'The team advanced to the semi-...
- 385
0
votes
3
answers
247
views
Why is it "the pretty nurse", not "a pretty nurse" in the song "Penny lane" by the Beatles?
In the Beatles song "Penny lane" there is such a verse:
Behind the shelter in the middle of a roundabout
The pretty nurse is selling poppies from a tray
And though she feels as if she's in ...
- 33
1
vote
1
answer
101
views
Why use the definite article before the nouns that are mentioned for the first time?
In the Wikipedia article on Cloakroom there is the following paragraph:
Attended cloakrooms, or coat checks, are staffed rooms where coats and bags can be stored securely. Typically, a ticket or ...
- 33
0
votes
0
answers
1k
views
"Last but not Least" or "The last but not the least"?
Is it because, in most cases, we use "last but not least" after mentioning some items that don't add "The" to the phrase? or is it just an accepted exception? Shouldn't the correct ...
- 11
1
vote
1
answer
80
views
Shouldn't there be the definite article at the beginning of the First Amendment to the US Constitution? [duplicate]
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution reads as follows:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the ...
- 19
1
vote
1
answer
46
views
The purpose of definite articles in the extract [closed]
Can anyone explain me the usage of articles in this extract?
When students in the UK were asked by a national newspaper what kind of college they would like to go to, they agreed that one of the most ...
- 27
0
votes
1
answer
39
views
Why do we put the in this example?
Nearly $300 billion in foreign aid was spent by the U.S. Government between the years 2013 and 2018 (source: Forbes)
I seriously don't know why we put "the years" in the sentence. More ...
- 111
0
votes
1
answer
347
views
"under the ten minutes" vs "under ten minutes"
By the end of Chapter 5 of The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle, there is a usage that I have never seen before: "under the ten minutes".
The context:
Until we got three-...
- 47
0
votes
1
answer
78
views
Capitalize "the" when referring to publications as physical objects? [duplicate]
There are plenty of questions on Stackexchange and the web about when to capitalize "the" in titles like "The New York Times." But most of those questions have to do with referring ...
- 109
0
votes
1
answer
48
views
Whether to use "the" before abbreviations such as HTTP
... This setting determines whether HTTP and FTP URIs should be turned into relative ones if a file is stored using the HTTP or the FTP.
HTTP stands for hypertext transfer protocol, and FTP stands ...
- 545
0
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Use of article: "by the air" or "by air"? [closed]
I like to travel by the air.
I like to travel by air.
I think the first one is correct because no human can travel in air (general meaning of 2nd one). When "the" is used with air it means ...
- 1