1

Part can be used both as a countable noun and as an uncountable noun. In both of its meanings it refers to a piece of something or some and not full part of sth. So if I say

The fire destroyed part of the building.
The fire destroyed a part of the building

What is the difference between these two sentences?

Thanks in advance..........

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  • There's no semantic difference at all -- they both entail the same thing, i.e. that some unidentified part of the building was destroyed by fire. – BillJ Mar 26 at 17:37
3

The fire destroyed part of the building.

Some of the building was destroyed by the fire, but not all of it.

The fire destroyed a part of the building.

Some discrete and identifiable part of the building was destroyed by the fire.

For instance, the second would be used if one wing of a building was destroyed, or an atrium, and so on.

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  • 1
    Thank you samBc.I want to learn advanced grammar, which book would you suggest me? – Kshitij Singh Mar 26 at 17:18
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    @KshitijSingh: That's not a good question to ask a native speaker, unless they've been involved in teaching English to speakers of other languages. We rarely learn grammar formally ourselves. We just pick it up. – SamBC Mar 26 at 17:20

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