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Kml Posted 16 years ago
Grammar
A few questions on Articles
hi again xD
i have always been studying one category at a time, and went in detail, so i might be asking a lot of things related to Articles
It is AN island of great beauty
why?
, since we are referring to an island, and only 1 island is beautiful, and it is specific right? shouldnt we use "the" instead? D: does articles have priorities? like if the noun is singular, since "a/an" is based on singular, "the" can be used on either singular or pronoun, we still have to use "a" because there is a priority? i know its a weird question D:
and also , when should we put Articles before words? Before a noun?
Another is :
The / a dog is a useful animal
The lion is the king of beasts
in the 1st sentence , we could use "a" , and we're referring to a whole class of dog right? and in the 2nd , we can't use "a" , and we are referring to the whole class of lions, Why? D:
Another one is :
Do you see the blue sky?
why "the" blue sky? cant' i use "a" blue sky? if it is valid, would it change the meaning?
i know these questions are weird , but i want to find out D: too curious .
thx
i have always been studying one category at a time, and went in detail, so i might be asking a lot of things related to Articles
It is AN island of great beauty
why?
, since we are referring to an island, and only 1 island is beautiful, and it is specific right? shouldnt we use "the" instead? D: does articles have priorities? like if the noun is singular, since "a/an" is based on singular, "the" can be used on either singular or pronoun, we still have to use "a" because there is a priority? i know its a weird question D:and also , when should we put Articles before words? Before a noun?
Another is :
The / a dog is a useful animal
The lion is the king of beasts
in the 1st sentence , we could use "a" , and we're referring to a whole class of dog right? and in the 2nd , we can't use "a" , and we are referring to the whole class of lions, Why? D:
Another one is :
Do you see the blue sky?
why "the" blue sky? cant' i use "a" blue sky? if it is valid, would it change the meaning?
i know these questions are weird , but i want to find out D: too curious .
thx
Top answer
Hi kml, I won't answer all of your questions because I'm in a hurry, but for your first question: It is an island of great beauty. If you used "the" in this sentence, it would imply that there was only ONE very beautiful island in the world, or that the people reading the sentence would know which island you meant. That doesn't make sense to most people, because most people believe that there are lots of beautiful islands in the world.
- Hi kml, I won't answer all of your questions because I'm in a hurry, but for your first question: It is an island of great beauty.
- If you used "the" in this sentence, it would imply that there was only ONE very beautiful island in the world, or that the people reading the sentence would know which island you meant.
- That doesn't make sense to most people, because most people believe that there are lots of beautiful islands in the world.
- I'll leave your other questions up to other contributors.
- ~Aaron
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4 Answers
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Hi kml,
I won't answer all of your questions because I'm in a hurry, but for your first question:
It is an island of great beauty.
If you used "the" in this sentence, it would imply that there was only ONE very beautiful island in the world, or that the people reading the sentence would know which island you meant. That doesn't make sense to most people, because most people
I won't answer all of your questions because I'm in a hurry, but for your first question:
It is an island of great beauty.
If you used "the" in this sentence, it would imply that there was only ONE very beautiful island in the world, or that the people reading the sentence would know which island you meant. That doesn't make sense to most people, because most people
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i see , so i can use "the", in cases like:1 ) it is the only island that have a skyscrapper.
2 ) like that? w
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meh.0
1) It's the only island that has a skyscraper.
2) It's one of the islands that have skyscrapers.
3) "It's the island that has a skyscraper." - implies that it's the only one.
4) A: Do you know about the haunted island?
B: Umm, which island?
A: The one that has a skyscraper.
Or if there's more than one:
2) It's one of the islands that have skyscrapers.
3) "It's the island that has a skyscraper." - implies that it's the only one.
4) A: Do you know about the haunted island?
B: Umm, which island?
A: The one that has a skyscraper.
Or if there's more than one:
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