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Source: Microsoft Access VBA Programming for the Absolute Beginner

The most common of table relationships is the one-to-many relationship, which is created by adding the primary key (one or more fields) from one table into a second table that will hold many occurrences of said primary key.

I asked a friend of mine who's a native English speaker whether everything was okay with the grammar in this sentence and he said that the sentence sounded absolutely fine to him as it was written. He explained that said something is a common phrase with no article. But I then looked it up in my dictionary and showed him the following example that I found there: acting in pursuance of the said agreement. To which he replied that because you already have the primary key mentioned before, you don't need to use the article again. Do you think this is correct logic? Would you please give me some more examples with that structure?

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    Said def. #2 - aforesaid; named or mentioned before. Why would you need an article when the adjective "said" makes it clear which primary key you're referring to? "Because the car dealership specialized in green sedans, the parking lot was full of said cars."
    – ColleenV
    Commented Mar 26, 2015 at 17:43

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Yes, this is correct. You don't need an article before "said", as it functions as an adjective, but it can go either way.

Here is Merriam Webster's example: "with said guidebook in hand, we set off to explore the city"

Here's another example: "For months we’ve heard rumour of a ‘PlayStation Phone’ being released, and speculated with regards to what the specs and capabilities of said phone would be."

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  • But why do they have an article in this example "acting in pursuance of the said agreement"?
    – Michael Rybkin
    Commented Mar 26, 2015 at 18:00
  • Like I said, it can go either way. In the second example page I linked to, there are two examples at the top of including "the". For your sentence, it sound perfectly natural to say "in pursuance of said agreement" or "in pursuance of the said agreement".
    – Nicole
    Commented Mar 26, 2015 at 18:03
  • So, if I get you right, then we could just as easily say "of the said primary key" and that would sound equally fine, correct?
    – Michael Rybkin
    Commented Mar 26, 2015 at 18:11
  • You could. I've seen it more often without the "the" - and Merriam Webster doesn't give an example with "the", but the second link had two. I think without is more common.
    – Nicole
    Commented Mar 26, 2015 at 23:17

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