Timeline for "There is a fog." Is the noun used correctly?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
9 events
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| Dec 28, 2017 at 15:14 | comment | added | J.R.♦ | @Mari-LouA - Edited. :-) | |
| Dec 28, 2017 at 15:13 | history | edited | J.R.♦ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
addressed concerns raised by Mari-LouA
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| Dec 28, 2017 at 15:05 | comment | added | Mari-Lou A | And my objection remains the same, none of your examples contain the bare sentence. Agreed, "thick" and "dense" and "blanket" and "patch" help make the word fog all the more interesting but the OP doesn't care about that (if they do, they haven't said so). They want to know if "There is a fog" is grammatically correct because their child uttered this phrase. The Q is not how to make the sentence more evocative. You still haven't said anything about "A rain fell" or "A rain poured down", are these examples grammatical without the heavy that qualifies it? [wink] | |
| Dec 28, 2017 at 14:44 | comment | added | J.R.♦ | @Mari-LouA - They may not be "exactly the same," but, you must admit, "There is a fog" is about as stark a sentence as one could conjure. I was trying to use something a bit more vivid. In any case, whether the sentence is more descriptive (such as McCullough's, The fog lost its density. A thin vapor seemed to rise from it – a fog upon a fog – like a mist from the ocean, and the whole began to settle and to melt away.), or bare-bones (I see a fog, e.g.), my bottom-line answer is the same: You can include an article, or omit it. | |
| Dec 28, 2017 at 13:05 | comment | added | Mari-Lou A |
Oh, I'm not saying "a fog" is ungrammatical, but all your examples contain an adjective, thick and heavy, which is not exactly the same.
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| Dec 28, 2017 at 12:39 | comment | added | J.R.♦ |
@Mari-Lou - No adjective is needed. A fog settled in is just fine. As for your preposition, Avoid driving in fog and Avoid driving in a fog are both fine; I think it's the "because of" that makes one sound off.
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| Dec 28, 2017 at 12:24 | comment | added | Mari-Lou A | Likewise "rain" by itself is not usually countable: "Rain poured down" not "A rain poured down" or "Rains poured down" The first sentence is idiomatic. | |
| Dec 28, 2017 at 12:20 | comment | added | Mari-Lou A |
The OP's sentence doesn't contain the adjective "thick", so your examples, which are all helpful and correct, are nevertheless biased. To my ears Avoid driving because of fog sounds more idiomatic than Avoid driving because of a fog Now, why is that?
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| Dec 28, 2017 at 11:02 | history | answered | J.R.♦ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |