A determiner + school
Hell everyone. I have a question.
Regarding the following sentence:
Living near ( the / his / a / no determiner ) school, Kevin walks to school every day.
I'm not certain about what determiner should be used in a case like this. Which of the four items in the bracket is the most natural? Also, are the other ones possible? I'm thinking of a situation where a boy lives near the school he belongs to, and goes to school on foot every day.
Top answer
The sentence is stylistically rather weak, but this is not directly relevant to your question. All those choices are possible: "the school" can mean a school previously mentioned or known to the reader, or a school that the reader may assume, from general knowledge, exists in Kevin's town/village/neighbourhood, even if not previously mentioned. "a school" is non-specific: some school not already known to the reader.
- The sentence is stylistically rather weak, but this is not directly relevant to your question.
- All those choices are possible: "the school" can mean a school previously mentioned or known to the reader, or a school that the reader may assume, from general knowledge, exists in Kevin's town/village/neighbourhood, even if not previously mentioned.
- "a school" is non-specific: some school not already known to the reader.
- "his school" is fairly obvious, I think.
- The "no determiner" choice is idiomatic and possible only with "school" and a few other special cases.
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The sentence is stylistically rather weak, but this is not directly relevant to your question.
All those choices are possible:
"the school" can mean a school previously mentioned or known to the reader, or a school that the reader may assume, from general knowledge, exists in Kevin's town/village/neighbourhood, even if not previously mentioned.
"a school" is non-specific: som
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