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Dib Posted 13 years ago
Grammar
Articles or no Articles
" I still keep wondering if I was doing the right thing when I asked my father for permission to leave school."
Why not "a permission" or "the permission" is used here?
"They never read anything but the local paper, and local papers report London affairs in one line."
Why not and THE local papers report London in one line?
Thanks.
Why not "a permission" or "the permission" is used here?
"They never read anything but the local paper, and local papers report London affairs in one line."
Why not and THE local papers report London in one line?
Thanks.
Top answer
It's kind of hard to explain, but I'll give it a shot. "permission" is, at least usually, a 'non-count' noun -- therefore "a permission" is rather out of the question. "the permission" would have to refer to a specific kind/instance of permission, the one that was necessary, without even telling the reader what it was for: I finally got the permission I needed.
- It's kind of hard to explain, but I'll give it a shot.
- "permission" is, at least usually, a 'non-count' noun -- therefore "a permission" is rather out of the question.
- "the permission" would have to refer to a specific kind/instance of permission, the one that was necessary, without even telling the reader what it was for: I finally got the permission I needed.
- So we're left with the 'no-article' version, and it's perfectly fine.
- As for the second sentence, 'the local paper' refers to a specific newspaper, presumably the most popular or influential for this particular city, as opposed to the generalization "local papers" -- a very broad term for newspapers that, in the speaker's mind, are not rigidly tied to any particular regions.
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4 Answers
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It's kind of hard to explain, but I'll give it a shot.
"permission" is, at least usually, a 'non-count' noun -- therefore "a permission" is rather out of the question.
"the permission" would have to refer to a specific kind/instance of permission, the one that was necessary, without even telling the reader what it was for: I finally got the permission I needed.
So we're lef
"permission" is, at least usually, a 'non-count' noun -- therefore "a permission" is rather out of the question.
"the permission" would have to refer to a specific kind/instance of permission, the one that was necessary, without even telling the reader what it was for: I finally got the permission I needed.
So we're lef
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I am confused. How is permission a non count noun while "question" is count? We say "He asked his father a question" and not just "question" so why we say "he asked his father permission to leave school"?
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DibI am confused. How is permission a non count noun while "question" is count? We say "He asked his father a question" and not just "question" so why we say "he asked his father permission to leave school"?Yes, we can count 'questions', but why would you count 'permissions' in this context? Perhaps you could in the context of "file/user permissions" but that
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DibI asked my father for permissionThe standard combination is "ask for permission", without 'a' or 'the'.
DibWhy not and THE local papers ... ?That would also be correct. The difference is negligible.
local papers ~ any papers that are published locally (The speaker has no specific papers in mind.)
the loc
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