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Grammaly told me that the "a" in the following sentence is unnecessary and it suggested I remove it:
The surface of the guitar was (a) gleaming white.
Is Grammaly correct? Why or why not?
Note: I searched for "surface was white" and "surface was a gleaming white." I got results in both cases.
Update based on my comment below:
To me, "was gleaming white" sounds like the object is casting a white gleam. "Was a gleaming white" sounds like the object is white, the gleaming type. Am I wrong?
In this case, I don't think you should remove the article. "The surface of the guitar was a gleaming white." sounds fine to me: What kind of white was the guitar? It was a gleaming white. Nothing wrong with that, grammatically or idiomatically.
The sentence would also be ok without the a, but it could be momentarily confusing, as it makes "gleaming" sound like it could be a verb (with its subject being guitar), instead of a modifier of "white" -- like the guitar was "gleaming" or sparkling.
So I say, yes, you are right. Disregard Grammarly in this particular case.
