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LanguageLover Posted 20 years ago
Grammar

Article "a"

0Another silly question. I know where to use "a" and where not. At least I thought that I knew. But the following sentence lacks something, or this is what I feel when reading it. Have a look to see if there is a need for "a" before the last component of the sentence. Thanks in advance.02br
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00The device has 4 active connectors: power, input-output (I/O), GPS antenna, and GSM antenna. 0-
  

Top answer

0Hi,02br 02br 00This sentence is giving a list of the connectors, so there need not be “a” before the last item. To make the list consistent there need either be an article before all of the items, or none of them. 02br 02br 00- Nick0-

— Nick147

  • 0Hi,02br 02br 00This sentence is giving a list of the connectors, so there need not be “a” before the last item.
  • To make the list consistent there need either be an article before all of the items, or none of them.
  • 02br 02br 00- Nick0-
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7 Answers
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0Hi,02br
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00This sentence is giving a list of the connectors, so there need not be “a” before the last item. To make the list consistent there need either be an article before all of the items, or none of them. I agree though that it does look a little awkward.02br
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00- Nick0-
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0If you are going to put the articles in the initial list, how would you write the articles in?02br
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00The sentence in the list format is as follows:02br
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00The device has 4 active connectors: power, input-output (I/O), GPS antenna, and GSM antenna.02br
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00You said that to make the list consistent, there needs either article
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0Hi Believer, 02br
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00to add articles in the sentence you could write02br
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01font00The device has 4 active connectors: a power connector, an input-output (I/O) connector………and a GSM antenna connector02font00. This is obviously not as snappy a sentence as the original but it is OK.02br
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0 Thanks again, Nick. 0-
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0Thank you. Do the writers normally follow your suggestion of making the list all articled-up or all article-free? 02br
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00I am asking this question beacause sometimes I see a lot of lists with jumbled-up articles - they werern't being consistent, I think.02br
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00 What do you think? If a prudent writer write a list, Should he or she better follow y
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0A list will usually have no articles, as adding articles makes the list look cumbersome. Most lists will be consistent throughout, though you will sometimes see that the writer has added "and a" or "and some" to the last item on a list. This is to make the sound of the sentence flow better.02br
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00If the list is written out as a "proper" list, or as a bulleted or numbere
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Thank you.

Can you give me some examples of the cases where the writers have added "and a" and "some" to the last item on the lists to make the sound of the lists flow better?
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