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Cat fold 525 Posted 7 years ago
Grammar

A toner/toner

Use a toner. Toner helps prepare your skin to soak in the next step. If you don’t have toner, no worries; your skin can still benefit fully from the sheet mask’s serum.

Source: https://www.orgaid.com/blogs/news/43661633-how-to-treat-your-skin-with-a-sheet-mask

As you can see, the writer used "a toner" in the beginning but then used "toner" without "a". Could you tell me why?

  

Top answer

One cannot be certain how far these article choices are the result of deliberate decision and how far they are just arbitrary. However, the article in "Use a toner" gives the sense that there are many types/brands of toner from which the consumer can choose, while the uncountable use in "Toner helps" gives the sense that we are now talking generically about the product as a "substance".

  • One cannot be certain how far these article choices are the result of deliberate decision and how far they are just arbitrary.
  • However, the article in "Use a toner" gives the sense that there are many types/brands of toner from which the consumer can choose, while the uncountable use in "Toner helps" gives the sense that we are now talking generically about the product as a "substance".
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1 Answers
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One cannot be certain how far these article choices are the result of deliberate decision and how far they are just arbitrary. However, the article in "Use a toner" gives the sense that there are many types/brands of toner from which the consumer can choose, while the uncountable use in "Toner helps" gives the sense that we are now talking generically about the product as a "substance".

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