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The sentence below is an example sentence from Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary for the entry for the verb "vary". I wonder why the room was not used and why just room was used here. As "room" here is a space that somebody specifically requires, I think it can be regarded as a specified noun.

Prices vary according to the type of room you require.

Thank you very much.

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    I think we don't use an article there because we already have one for the whole noun phrase, the type of room. type refers to a specific type; room doesn't refer to a specific room, but any room you might get. But it's a good question.
    – stangdon
    Commented Mar 15, 2017 at 16:05
  • @stangdon Thank you for the comment. It helps me understand it a lot, but I do not feel very sure about it as I feel like getting an answer in a grammatical sense.
    – Smart Humanism
    Commented Mar 16, 2017 at 7:26

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In your example, the accent is on "the type". The room is just adding more meaning to the type - together they work as an expression: "the type of room".

Since the "room" is used in the most generic way, a definite article would not fit.

On the other hand, you can have "the type of the room" as well, in a different context.

Consider this:

You will be in room XZ. The type of the room does not allow you to smoke inside.

In this example, the room is known, and the sentence is built around that specific room, so the definite article is needed.

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  • Thank you very much. This clears up my confusion.
    – Smart Humanism
    Commented Feb 22, 2019 at 19:47

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