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Somethingsimple Posted 20 years ago
Grammar

Articles with atmospheric phenomena

0Thanks a lot to all of you who takes their personal time to answer our questions 05002br
02br
00Anyways, was just wondering why is it01blockquote
02br
12br
11font10I was late because of THE snow.12font12br
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10But01blockquote
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12br
11font10I had to drive through _ mist.12font12br
12blockquote
10I reckon in both instances we have reference to a particular occasion rather than a generic concept of 'rain' or 'mist'. 010id1
  

Top answer

02br 02br 00 You can make your reference to 01i 00snow, rain, mist, hail,02i 00 etc. 02br 02br 00 CJ0-

— CalifJim

  • 02br 02br 00 You can make your reference to 01i 00snow, rain, mist, hail,02i 00 etc.
  • 02br 02br 00 CJ0-
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23 Answers
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0 01i00the02i00 is pretty much optional in such expressions.02br
02br
00 You can make your reference to 01i00snow, rain, mist, hail,02i00 etc. generally, or to 01i00the snow, the rain, the mist, the hail02i00 that is present on a particular occasion.02br
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00 CJ0-
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0Thanks Jim.02br
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00But do you agree that even from those two out of context sentences it is sort of clear that we are talking about a particular occasion? If you do, do you think we need to be consistent in the application of the articles here? I.e. either two 'no articles' or two 'thes'. 02br
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00The textbook I took it from does not explain the re
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0 I'd be curious whether the lesson in which those sentences appeared was a lesson on articles.02br
00 If so, I would expect some reasons to be given.02br
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00 The lack of consistency does not bother me. It may be the author's way of illustrating that both usages are possible.02br
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05002br
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00 CJ010id1
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0What I noticed looking at this forum is that you, guys, are much more relaxed about the usage of the articles than a couple of textbooks I have been looking at. I wonder if there's the American vs. British English difference here.0-
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0Yes, the lesson was on articles. And yes, there was a general discussion about the usages but no explanation as far as the examples were concerned. I will cite it here, if you are interested.01h2

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0 I confess I do not understand the point. 01i01b00the02b00 mist02i00 seems perfectly fine to me. Maybe, as you say, something to do with British English enters into it.02br
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00 CJ0-
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0 A: What did you do over the weekend?02br
00B: I went to A restaurant.02br
00A: Which restaurant did you go to?02br
00B: I went to AN Italian restaurant.02br
00A: Oh, which one?02br
00B: THE restaurant La Pasta 02br
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00A: What did you do over the weekend?02br
00B: I went to La Pasta and had their spe
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0 01blockquote
01cite10CalifJim12cite10I confess I do not understand the point. 11i11b10the12b10 mist12i10 seems perfectly fine to me. Maybe, as you say, something to do with British English enters into it.12br
12blockquote
10Thanks Jim. I wish I could be less concerned. What I usu
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0Thanks .com,02br
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00However, in your example you are using a concrete countable noun 'restaurant'. Hence you cant really drop an article before it in most of the cases. As far as I can see no article is used in the second dialogue not because the listener already has some knowledge of the word, but because La Pasta is a proper noun. 02br
02br
00If you
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0"I was late because of the snow", implies that both the speaker and the hearer know that snow is the prevailing condition. "I was late because I had to drive through mist" suggests either that only the speaker, and not the hearer, knows of the weather condition, or that of the numerous things that could have caused the speaker to be late, it was the misty atmosphere (as opposed, for instance,
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