This is a real war, and the whole of the city is on edge.
How the meaning of this sentence changes if ALL the articles are removed, like so:
This is real war, and whole of city is on edge.
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1In practice it doesn't make any real difference to the meaning whether you include an article or not in a real war. Come to that, t doesn't make any real difference whether you include the word real either. But "whole of city" isn't valid English, so I think this question nets down to Off Topic proofreading anyway.– FumbleFingersCommented Feb 26, 2022 at 11:39
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I'd say 'a real war' here is the preferred choice. 'It must be classified as a war rather than say a mere border skirmish'. 'This is real war' would be used to mean 'really fierce engagements rather than say a longish lull in a declared war'. // As FF says, 'the whole of city is on edge' is unacceptable.– Edwin AshworthCommented Feb 26, 2022 at 11:49
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1Does this answer your question? Use of both a zero article and definite article. Also Why isn't there an article before "conflict"? and No indefinite article before the word 'battle', among others– FumbleFingersCommented Feb 26, 2022 at 13:08
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1 Answer
If you remove the articles the sentence ceases to be English.
A native speaker would probably be able to understand the gist, but mentally inserting the articles in places that are reasonable.
It is possible to omit the article before "real war" because it is possible to use "war" as a non-count noun. There is little change in meaning.
It is not possible to omit the articles before "city" in English.
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Thanks. How about the omissions of articles in headlines and headings, like in this one: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_London Commented Feb 26, 2022 at 15:13
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How about it? That's a title, and a proper noun. It's not a grammatical sentence. It is like saying "Dog"... it's a word, but it isn't a sentence. There's no grammar. If you are putting words together to make a sentence, then you need sentence grammar. Sometimes that means you have to have some articles. Look at the rest of the Wikipedia page and you'll see sentences, and the word "the" is used very often.– James KCommented Feb 26, 2022 at 16:20
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This title looks like a proper sentence. Still no ‘the’ before city: bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-24/… Commented Feb 26, 2022 at 18:53
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