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Yeganeh Posted 13 years ago
Grammar

a single noun without articles or determiners

Hi,
That baffled me since I was learning English!
Would anyone please tell me if there is any situation which is possible that a single countable noun comes without a determine or article?

Thanks,
  

Top answer

This just in: Headline Style Allows Single Noun without Article

  • This just in: Headline Style Allows Single Noun without Article
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20 Answers
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This just in:
Headline Style Allows Single Noun without Article
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BarbaraPAThis just in:Headline Style Allows Single Noun without Article
Also captions under photographs:

'Boy with dog.'

'Man on beach.'

And in notes or memos:

'Custodian to lock door of office at 10pm.'
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Man is the dominant species on the planet. (Or am I cheating?)
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If I may cheat, too: In this sentence, "cat" is a singular count noun used without a determiner.
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Tarzan not need determiner. Tarzan not know what article is.
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CliveMan is the dominant species on the planet. (Or am I cheating?)
Thanks. I think I got your point, but would you please explain how should I use it?
I understand that the sentence is correct, but I always hesitate to use that style. For instance, I would use 'The man'.
Similarly, "Student is a person who studies." is a crossroad for me. I don't know
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Aspara GusIf I may cheat, too: In this sentence, "cat" is a singular count noun used without a determiner.
Thank you for your answer, but I have no idea, what are you talking about! What do you two mean from cheating? And what the "cat" is referring to? I don't see any cat anywhere.
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Every time I say never, somebody comes along with a counter-example and makes a monkey out of me. I think that's why nobody wants to say there is no such situation. (Clive was cheating, as he hinted.) I will say that in ordinary writing, you cannot have a singular countable noun with no determiner or article, no. Headlines, captions, reported illiterate speech, yes.
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enoonEvery time I say never, somebody comes along with a counter-example and makes a monkey out of me.
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You can use 'man' to refer to all men and women, ie to the whole human race.

But it's a special case. You can't, for example, say 'chair' to refer to all chairs.

Clive

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