Questions tagged [zero-article]
For questions about noun phrases that contain no articles, definite or indefinite.
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Why do we not use the definite article in "Where can I find the room 401?"
Last week in college, a student [with a thick South Asian accent] asked me:
"Excuse me, where can I find the room 401?".
I realized that to my native English ears, the word "the" sounded non-...
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"I don't have the time to cook" or "I don't have time to cook"?
Should I say:
I do not have the time.
Or
I do not have time.
Which option is the correct one? If both are correct, is there any difference in meaning or other difference between them?
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10
answers
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"She speaks an impeccable English" vs "She speaks impeccable English"
What is the difference between these sentences?
She speaks an impeccable English.
She speaks impeccable English.
I understand both are correct but is one simply more specific because of ...
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3
answers
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Why can I write "Please open window" without an article?
"Please open window" is a sign I saw on a London bus. What rule let the author omit an article? It was written right on the window, so I'm wondering why they didn't write "Please open ...
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2
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When can an article be omitted? [duplicate]
I am aware that articles are the modifiers, which introduce a noun/noun_phrase in a sentence, and by the rules of English grammar we should use an article before referring to a noun in a sentence.
...
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votes
2
answers
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"He gave the order to abandon ship." - why no article?
The entry for "abandon" in the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary contains the following example sentence:
He gave the order to abandon ship (= to leave the ship because it was sinking).
I ...
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votes
4
answers
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A secretary with ____ good knowledge of English: "a" or no article?
I'm trying to pass a test on "Articles exercise" as they call it on the EnglishGrammar site.
Reviewing my answers I got stuck about the two I posted on the picture below.
As I understand both words ...
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2
answers
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Why is there the indefinite article in: “a Victorian 23 knots”?
I've recently watched Top Gear and one of the presenters said there: ...In fact, I was only doing a Victorian 23 knots.
Why did he use the indefinite article when the noun is in the plural? And what ...
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1
answer
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“The,” or no article: “All _____ time.”
What is the difference? Or is it grammatically wrong?
all time
or
all the time
And if you make such a proposal, it will be wrong?
The best artists of the time (When you add the article the ...
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5
answers
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"I was reading posts there" vs. "I was reading the posts there"
This is my post from History Stack Exchange. I was reading posts there and one specific issue interested me. That's why I wrote that post.
Should I use the when referring to posts on History SE in ...
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3
answers
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In which situations is it OK to omit articles in short sentences?
Recently, in many new online software I often see that developers omit articles in short sentences, especially on action buttons or tooltips.
For instance: "Add new task" (not "Add a new task"), "...
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votes
6
answers
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(The?) Lions in the zoo are very aggressive [duplicate]
We use a plural count noun with no article if we mean all or any of
that thing. For example:
Lions are very aggressive.
I don't like lions.
We only use the with general ...
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votes
2
answers
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Do you have a / the time?
I am trying to cope with the ever increasing trend of new phrases in English language and found something.
I have heard many a times people use "Do you have a/the time?" In reply, either we say "Yes/...
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what kind of an animal vs. what kind of animal
An excerpt from Java for Dummies, 6th Edition:
If you already know what kind of an animal Java is and know that you want to use Java, skip Chapter 1 and go straight to Chapter 2. Believe me, I won’...
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11
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psychologist John Hayes (THE, zero article before false titles)
An example (from The New Yorker) of a phrase with a false title (psychologist John Hayes):
After Simon and Chase’s paper, for example, the psychologist John
Hayes looked at seventy-six famous ...
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9
votes
5
answers
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A or no article? “He is_____ racist.”
Why in most cases do not put the article "a", when you enter the sentence in the search?
In the example on this site, the article is adding (OALD (American English))
Just enter in the search and you ...
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votes
2
answers
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Is Vietnamese a noun or an adjective?
If I say I am Vietnamese. Is Vietnamese a noun or an adjective? According to OALD, Vietnamese can be a noun or an adjective. If it’s a noun, why don’t we say I am a Vietnamese? Because its meaning is ...
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4
answers
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views
Is it correct to use zero article in this sentence?
There is an exercise in Gateway B1 Student's book, page 13, where you need to choose the correct article.
The answer key for this sentence:
The results show that ∅ / the teenagers who eat with ...
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votes
5
answers
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"police said" - why not "the police said"?
Example with a context (news article: Russian police arrest three after dramatic Moscow shootout):
In their last crime, the alleged robbers had grabbed more than 8 million rubles ($146,000) in an ...
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8
votes
4
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Articles with professions: "The job of teacher" vs "The job of a teacher"
The job of teacher, for which patience is required, would not suit me.
Why don't we say "the job of a teacher"? As far as I know with professions we always use the indefinite article
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"... is called Minkowski space" or "is called the Minkowski space" and WHY?
I met both constructions in quite respectable texts. Is it a matter of taste, or of a shade of meaning?
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4
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My brother has turned writer VS. My brother has turned a writer
I encountered a quiz:
My brother has turned _____ writer. I am proud of him.
A. a
B. the
C. /
D. an
The answer key is C. As I understand, zero article might be ok here because writer is an ...
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4
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Are all article combinations valid patterns for "the" ɴᴏᴜɴ of "the" ɴᴏᴜɴ?
Please consider:
We should pay attention to the quality of the presentation.
We should pay attention to the quality of presentation.
We should pay attention to quality of presentation.
We should pay ...
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2
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"Have you ever had surgery?" Why does surgery in this sentence have no article?
Can't we ask instead, Have you ever had a surgery? Is surgery a countable noun? I guess we can speak of surgeries in the plural form. Why should we use zero article in this sentence?
Update:
What ...
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votes
1
answer
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Why isn’t there any article before this countable noun?
There was chaise longue at the end of the dressing room, and Clea crept to it now and lay down, pulling her knees up to her chin.
(Clea & Zeus Divorce by Emily Prager,p.54)
I don’t find out why ...
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votes
2
answers
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When to use an article before "reason"
Please help me to understand when should I use an article before reason and when I should not use any article before reason.
Examples:
(A) I have reason to do this.
(B) I have a good reason ...
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votes
2
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When does one drop the article after "with"?
This question was already asked here, but didn't receive a proper answer.
In a book on writing papers in english, one reads that the article is omitted "in some expressions describing a noun". The ...
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1
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When should one use articles with adjective+proper noun?
I've always thought that we don't use articles when the adjective is descriptive as in "Welcome to fabulous Las Vegas". And that we do use them when the adjective makes the proper noun different from ...
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3
answers
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How to distinguish countable and uncountable senses?
The general rule is to use an article for countable nouns (i.e. nouns permitting a plural) and no article for uncountable nouns. However, some nouns may be countable in one sense and uncountable in ...
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votes
5
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Is "Bananas grow in a tropical climate" grammatically correct?
I'm trying to learn grammar from an IETLS book, In one of the fill in the blank type question, there is one question such as :
Bananas grow in _______.
The answers page says that the correct ...
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6
votes
3
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Why is there no article in "We are Family"?
Sister Sledge - We Are Family - YouTube
I've searched on YouTube a song named 'We are Family'
Why use the sentence without an article 'a' or 'the'?
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6
votes
2
answers
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Should I put "an" to describe "knowledge"
I am trying to post an advertisement, which is:
Job opportunity:
A company located in XXX needs employees.
Requirements: some knowledge about NoSQL (preferable Couchbase) and elasticsearch. ...
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6
votes
1
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The usage of the definite article
I'm watching a movie about an asteroid colliding with the Earth. At some point I saw a caption:
10 days until impact
Why isn't it
10 days until the impact
There is one particulat impact that ...
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1
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before we get to yuppie -- why no article in front of "yuppie"?
Source: short audio clip
Transcript:
So, what is a yuppie? Well, actually before we get to yuppie, we need to go back in time. Let's go back all the way to the 1940s. Now, a couple months ago, in ...
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votes
3
answers
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“the top levels of government” -- why not "of THE government"?
Example taken from: Russia questions five suspects over Nemtsov killing:
However no information has emerged as to the possible motive the men could have had in killing the charismatic opposition ...
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6
votes
2
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Why don't we use "the" before "third gear"?
Or fifth, fourth, whatever. Omitting the article would make sense if it were "gear five". But with gear being a countable noun, I'm totally stumped.
For example,
Whenever I start my car I switch ...
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3
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"in the light of" vs "in light of"
I see that both phrases "in light of" and "in the light of" are used and people considering both to be correct. Look here and here. Also there is a large corpus supporting both ...
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1
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into night or into the night
I thought of another question led by a question in an exam.
The paper is due next month, and I am working seven days ______ week,
often long into______night.
A． a; the
B．the; /
C．a; a
D．/; ...
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2
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The definite article in phrases with "from"?
So, I learned that you use the definite article with specific nouns and no article with plurals or general nouns. In my practice book, there's an example that confuses me. It is a task where you have ...
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Is the rule of when to add the articles: (a, the, no article) before a noun, too flexible in English?
This is from William Gibson's Neuromancer:
The impact with pavement drove dull rods of pain through his shins.
Why is there no article before pavement?
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'I am man' or 'I am a man'?
Man can also mean human beings as an uncountable noun, so does that mean I can say:
I am man.
or
Man are not smart.
without the article?
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"Verge of shutdown" or "Verge of a shutdown"?
Which one of the following is grammatically correct?
Abc Country might be on the verge of a shutdown.
or,
Abc Country might be on the verge of shutdown?.
I think the second one is right.
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Zero article before "advice", "fish and chips", "lunch"
Please explain next example:
My neighbour is a photographer; let's ask him for (!) advice about colour films.
We had (!) fish and (!) chips for (!) lunch. That doesn't sound a very interesting lunch....
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1
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Zero article before emperor in "You will not be emperor"
Emperor is a countable noun according to the Cambridge dictionary. Why the zero article is used in the following sentence?
You will not be emperor. (Gladiator)
Comparing to the similar construction ...
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4
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"the bounds of keyboard and cables, of monitor and mouse" - why no articles?
Source: How Computers Work by Ron White
Example:
The deskless PC has long been computing's holy grail, a computer that slips the bounds of keyboard and cables, of monitor and mouse, to soar free ...
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What is this over?
"I walked over hill and valley" from a workbook
Does this mean walk all over hill and valley?
or other things?
user25470
5
votes
1
answer
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Is this proper English "They have church building, but they're not church."?
In a script I am working on a line is phrased within the movie: "They have church building, but they're not church."
It is our job to edit the lines and make it more natural for the American ...
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2
answers
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usage of THE with the plural subject (or noun)
I have following construction.
Table 4 shows the parameters used by the filtering approach. The
parameters are determined by the knowledge about the data and landscape.
I want to clarify, ...
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"calculus" and "the calculus" - what's the difference?
Example:
Now, if you picked up the book and looked through it, the first thing you'd notice is that it was presented in the imposing format that the ancient mathematician Euclid had used in his ...
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1
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condition - a / no article
Why in some cases condition is used with an article and in some cases with no article?
For example:
Considering its age, this house is in excellent condition.
He was in a terrible condition ...
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