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Anonymous Posted 20 years ago
Grammar

a great knowledge and a great effort

Hi,

I sometimes have difficulties in correctly using the phrases like "great knowlege" and "great effort" because I am not sure whether I have to put "a" in front of them in sentences.

Ex.

People in the class have (a) great knowledge of physical science.

It required (a) great effort on my part.

Can you give me some clear guidelines as to this aspect of grammar if you caught the nature of my dilemma? Possibly need some finely contectualized examples with good explanations.
  

Top answer

02br 02br 00In your example, knowledge is a non-count noun. 02br 02br 00The word "effort" however can be both count or non-count depending on usage. e.

— Jay_zzz0

  • 02br 02br 00In your example, knowledge is a non-count noun.
  • 02br 02br 00The word "effort" however can be both count or non-count depending on usage.
  • e.
  • 0-
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13 Answers
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0 The first thing you need to know before putting "a / an" in front of a noun is whether it is a count or non-count noun.02br
02br
00In your example, knowledge is a non-count noun. In this case, we don't use "a / an" in front of the word.02br
02br
00The word "effort" however can be both count or non-count depending on usage. In your example of "great eff
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0 Thank you, it was 01u00a great knowledge enhancer02u00. 0-
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0 In these two phrases, "00a 00great knowedge" and "00a00 great effort", are "A00s"00 articles for the words "knowledge" and "effort" and "great" is 01b00adjectives02b00? 00 0-
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0How would you reconcile the fact that Mr. Paco said that in these two instances (as Mr. Paco said), both sentences are correct when those two do not follow your reasoning?02br
02br
00(o) He has a great knowedge of medical science.02br
02br
00(o) He has great knowledge of medical science. 02br
02br
00P/S note that in both instances,
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0Both sentences are correct. The first01i00 knowledge02i00 is countable-- 01i00great02i00 is a 'kind' of 01i00knowledge02i00. The second 01i00knowledge02i00 is uncountable, and 01i00great02i00 refers to the quantity of it.0-
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0 01blockquote
01cite10Anonymous12cite10Thank you, it was 11u10a great knowledge enhancer12u10.12blockquote
10I'm not sure if this was from the same 'Anonymous' but in the underlined text, the noun is actually enhancer, and not knowledge. Using 'a' here is acceptable, if that was what you were trying to say.
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0It could only be 01i00knowledges02i00, Jay. I doubt you'll see it that often: it is more in the concept than the actualization; still, Mr Google gives us almost a million pages, and here are some examples:02br
02br
00Valuing all cultural 01b00knowledges02b00 requires more than one culture being present...02br
00The
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0 Right. Now I know. Seems that I didn't come across "knowledges" very often.02br
02br
050010id5
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0 Thank you. So, "great" is quatifying the uncountable noun and acting as sort of the "quantifying adjective" or the "quantifier" like " 01i01u00a little02u02i00 water" and "01i01u00some02u02i00 furniture." Right? 0-
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