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Silak12 Posted 9 years ago
Grammar

Is something the matter?

Hi everyone.

Could you tell me why do we use "the matter" instead of "a matter" or "a problem" in the sentence; is something the matter ? is this sentence grammatical? Or it's a shortened form a long sentence.

Thanks!

  

Top answer

Is something the matter? It's correct as written. It's not a shortened form of something else.

— GPY

  • Is something the matter?
  • It's correct as written.
  • It's not a shortened form of something else.
  • "the matter", in this particular sense, is a set phrase that always has the definite article.
  • ", "He pretended that nothing was the matter", and so on.
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1 Answers
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Is something the matter?

It's correct as written. It's not a shortened form of something else. "the matter", in this particular sense, is a set phrase that always has the definite article. Similarly we say "What's the matter?", "He pretended that nothing was the matter", and so on.

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