"He treats his dog as property."
or
"He treats his dog as a property."
I suspect that the former is correct, is it?
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treat his dog as property is correct. You could also say "He treats his dog as a piece of property."– katatahitoJun 14, 2019 at 7:19
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1The first is better; the second would imply he's treating the dog as a house. I think it would sound more natural to use "his" though - "He treats the dog as his property." "He treats his wife as his property."– ShowsniJun 14, 2019 at 11:09
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You could use the latter in context. Although the article would still sound odd, it wouldn't necessarily be wrong. The tics treat his dog as a property. In that case, the tics are small enough to actually inhabit the dog.– Jason BassfordJun 14, 2019 at 16:03
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2 Answers
Property can be a count noun, but in this sense it is not, so as a property doesn't make sense.
You could say
He treats his dog as property.
but it is much more natural to say
He treats his dog as his property.
answered Nov 22, 2019 at 11:47
A property in a non-legal context would lean toward meaning "real property" - something like a house, building, or section of land.
It would be rare to treat a dog like a house or real state, so you would say "He treats his dog as property."
