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Vcolts Posted 16 years ago
Grammar

Article Rule?

I asked a similar question before but I couldn't get the name of the rule/case, so I will ask again if somebody can tell me the name of the rule.

I was told that omitting the article and grouping the nouns together have no difference in meaning/understanding from not doing so (and also both ways are grammatically correct).

Ex.

The German car and airplane vs. The German car and the german airplane

The man and woman vs. The man and the woman

What's the rule called on skipping the article and grouping them together?

Thanks in advance.
  

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6 Answers
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vcoltsWhat's the rule called on skipping the article and grouping them together?

I don't really understand what you mean when you ask what the "rule" is called. What you seem to be describing is the omission of articles (and possibly adjectives too) before all nouns in a list after the first. If there's a snappy way to say that I don't know it, but even i
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Maybe you saw the term ellipsis? It's not a rule though.

CJ
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I think I looked up ellipsis before, and I don't think that was it.

So it is just grammatically correct to skip/share the common article, eh?
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vcolts
So it is just grammatically correct to skip/share the common article, eh?


Yes, but I think there's a tendency to omit repeated articles when the things are closely associated, and a tendency to retain them when the things are disparate.

"I picked up the knife and fork."

"I picked up the knife and the artichoke."
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