What article should I use with the word sarcasm?

Question

-Are you serious?

-No, it's [a/the/ ] sarcasm.

What do you think about putting 'a' or 'the' to that word? Why? — Maulik V, Aug 13 '14 at 10:05

StoneyB on hiatus · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-13 13:17:54Z

Sarcasm should be understood as an uncountable quality which is attributed to an utterance.

The word is not used in English (as it is in some other languages) to mean an instance of sarcasm. We do not, for instance, say

^∗"How beautiful!" was a sarcasm.

If you want to attribute the quality of sarcasm to a particular utterance you may say:

No, "How beautiful!" was sarcasm.
No, "How beautiful!" was a sarcastic answer.
No, "How beautiful!" was meant sarcastically.

By the same token, if you speak of someone's sarcasm—

Fred's sarcasm offended me.

—you are not saying that the actual words he said offended you, but that the explicit or implicit tone of what he said offended you.

^∗ marks a usage as unacceptable

Shabbeh · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-13 09:42:06Z

0

It's sarcasm.

also note that this word in uncountable.

answered Aug 13 '14 at 9:42

Shabbeh

2351 gold badge3 silver badges7 bronze badges

2

I would expand this answer a little bit and explain that uncountable nouns don't take the indefinite article "a".
– Nico
Aug 13 '14 at 10:04

Add a comment |

2 Answers 2