Is the use of an article (the) appropriate here?

Question

In general, a singular common noun is always preceded by an article - a, an, or the.

Applying the same rule in the following sentence, we get

1) He is good at the word prediction.

I precede word with the since word is singular common noun. However, I am not referring to a specific word, like in sentence

2) He is good at the hidden word prediction.

Hence, I feel in sentence 1, preceding word with the doesn't sound proper, and I expect sentence 1 to be in the following form.

3) He is good at word prediction.

But, with sentence 3, I break the rule by not preceding a singular common noun --word-- with an article.

Please elaborate if 1 or 3 is correct (or both)? Why?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Your ear is right. 1 is incorrect.
'The' should not be used in that case. If you put 'the' in front of 'word' in the first sentence, it is not referring to the singular noun 'word', it is referring to 'word prediction'. 'Word' in this sentence is an adjective modifying 'prediction'.

2 is correct, though it is a less common usage. It works without 'the' in the same way that 1 does not need 'the'. With 'the' it distinguishes 'hidden word prediction' from other kinds of 'word prediction' that might be present in this context.

3 is correct. Here's one way to tell.

He is good at word prediction.

means the same thing as

He is good at predicting words.

Update:Modified my answer to reflect points @Flair brought up in comments.