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Anonymous Posted 17 years ago
Grammar
Article usage
In the following sentence:
I walked in the rain.
The word rain has a specific reference here and the sentence implies the reader knows which rain is referred to. If I, however, say I walked in rain, I somehow suggest the reader that he/she can't know which particular rain I'm talking about. It could also mean that I dont want the reader to be concerned with trying to figure out if that rain is a particular rain or not.
It seems to me that examples like these are open to interpretation and quite obviously the hearer will not always capture the meaning meant by the speaker.
I am not a native speaker of English so I could be wrong. I'm interested in what you think and how would you interpret the above example?
I walked in the rain.
The word rain has a specific reference here and the sentence implies the reader knows which rain is referred to. If I, however, say I walked in rain, I somehow suggest the reader that he/she can't know which particular rain I'm talking about. It could also mean that I dont want the reader to be concerned with trying to figure out if that rain is a particular rain or not.
It seems to me that examples like these are open to interpretation and quite obviously the hearer will not always capture the meaning meant by the speaker.
I am not a native speaker of English so I could be wrong. I'm interested in what you think and how would you interpret the above example?
Top answer
Hi, There is some truth in all that you say. 9% of cases, one would say 'I walked in the rain'. We talk about the weather in forms that are more or less idiomatic.
- Hi, There is some truth in all that you say.
- 9% of cases, one would say 'I walked in the rain'.
- We talk about the weather in forms that are more or less idiomatic.
- If you say 'I walked in rain', it's unusual enough to make the listener/reader pause for a moment and think about why you said it that way.
- To me, it sounds poetic and stylish.
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3 Answers
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Hi,
There is some truth in all that you say.
Nevertheless, let me point out that in 99.9% of cases, one would say 'I walked in the rain'.
We talk about the weather in forms that are more or less idiomatic.
If you say 'I walked in rain', it's unusual enough to make the listener/reader pause for a moment and think about why you said it that way. To me, it sounds
There is some truth in all that you say.
Nevertheless, let me point out that in 99.9% of cases, one would say 'I walked in the rain'.
We talk about the weather in forms that are more or less idiomatic.
If you say 'I walked in rain', it's unusual enough to make the listener/reader pause for a moment and think about why you said it that way. To me, it sounds
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Yes , I understand that, but to further press the issue, would you still use, I walked in the rain, even when you know that this is a specific reference to rain and the reader has no way of knowing which rain I'm talking about? Examples like this one are rare but I've seen them in english grammar books
Best regards
Ivan
Best regards
Ivan
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Hi Ivan,
It would just mean "the rain that was falling when you were talking." That makes it specific enough, I guess.
As Clive says, sometimes we say things a certain way because it's idiomatic to. That is, we say it that way simply because we say it that way.
If you left out the article, people would stop and notice how you said it, not what you said. That IS a goal o
It would just mean "the rain that was falling when you were talking." That makes it specific enough, I guess.
As Clive says, sometimes we say things a certain way because it's idiomatic to. That is, we say it that way simply because we say it that way.
If you left out the article, people would stop and notice how you said it, not what you said. That IS a goal o
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