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Anonymous Posted 15 years ago
Grammar

About the usage of "the" (or situations where it shouldn't be used).

Hello. I have been speaking English for about 10 years now, but even now, I have a constant problem of over-using the article "the" or sometimes "a" in places where it shouldn't be! I already read up on it, so I have a good idea of when it SHOULD be used, but it doesn't mention when it should NOT be used. There are also these unspoken rules that I can only seem to learn from asking around, such as "you don't use it in front of a proper noun". Example: I am Iron Man, not I am the Iron Man.

I also got corrected on this sentence from my recent report:

"The impact of this on (the) society is threefold."

(The) shouldn't be there.

I know this sounds really dumb, but I've embarassed myself too many times in public and on college reports, and I want to get it perfect once and for all! If someone can tell me what I'm doing wrong, and when articles SHOULDN'T be used, i'll be very very thankful!

PS: if you saw any grammatical problems in this post, could you also point it out? Thanks you (I suck at writing in general)!
  

Top answer

Hello, Sean - and welcome to English Forums. There is no simple answer, sorry. com/Three-Little-Words-Students-Articles/dp/0937354465 ]BOOKS[/url] have been written on the subject.

— Mister Micawber

  • Hello, Sean - and welcome to English Forums.
  • There is no simple answer, sorry.
  • com/Three-Little-Words-Students-Articles/dp/0937354465 ]BOOKS[/url] have been written on the subject.
  • To get it perfect, you'll need to get a book like that.
  • Generally, 'a/an' is not used with uncountable common nouns (but there are plenty of exceptions) and 'the' is often not used with plural countable common nouns.
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2 Answers
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Hello, Sean - and welcome to English Forums.

There is no simple answer, sorry. Whole [url=http://www.amazon.com/Three-Little-Words-Students-Articles/dp/0937354465]BOOKS[/url] have been written on the subject. To get it perfect, you'll need to get a book like that.
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SeangiefIf someone can tell me what I'm doing wrong, and when articles SHOULDN'T be used, i'll be very very thankful!
We would have to see a lot of examples in which you made the wrong choice in order to pinpoint the situations you're having the most trouble with.

In general, don't use articles with proper nouns or abstract nouns.

CJ
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