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Believer Posted 19 years ago
Grammar
reason for their absence
Hi,
Excuse me but I have some questions on usage of English articles.
1. Let us say that I am playing a game with my friends and I am telling them about a step in the process.
Hi, guys, I have a bunch of crumpled strips of paper in the can and each crumpled strip of paper symbolizes an animals: pig, dog, etc...
Here, I think pig and dog do not accompany English articles because they are not used grammatically, but rather used in terms of their semantic substance (rightly worded?).
2. There is this one more example:
They use as inspiration an array of animals including oryx, gorilla, gazelle, etc.
Here, I think a similar argument can be made as that I have made above -- that is those names of animals are not used grammatically but used as to refer to their substance.
3. How about this? Does 'an instance' function the same as 'a type' and that is why there is no article in front of the word 'slang'?
It is not an instance of slang here.
Thank you.
Excuse me but I have some questions on usage of English articles.
1. Let us say that I am playing a game with my friends and I am telling them about a step in the process.
Hi, guys, I have a bunch of crumpled strips of paper in the can and each crumpled strip of paper symbolizes an animals: pig, dog, etc...
Here, I think pig and dog do not accompany English articles because they are not used grammatically, but rather used in terms of their semantic substance (rightly worded?).
2. There is this one more example:
They use as inspiration an array of animals including oryx, gorilla, gazelle, etc.
Here, I think a similar argument can be made as that I have made above -- that is those names of animals are not used grammatically but used as to refer to their substance.
3. How about this? Does 'an instance' function the same as 'a type' and that is why there is no article in front of the word 'slang'?
It is not an instance of slang here.
Thank you.
Top answer
1. Hi, guys, I have a bunch of crumpled strips of paper in the can and each crumpled strip of paper symbolizes an animal : pig, dog, etc... -- It sounds stilted without the article.
- 1.
- Hi, guys, I have a bunch of crumpled strips of paper in the can and each crumpled strip of paper symbolizes an animal : pig, dog, etc...
- -- It sounds stilted without the article.
- With your 'Hi guys', you have made the sentence quite casual, so ' a pig, a dog' would be more natural.
- 2.
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3 Answers
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1. Hi, guys, I have a bunch of crumpled strips of paper in the can and each crumpled strip of paper symbolizes an animal: pig, dog, etc... -- It sounds stilted without the article. With your 'Hi guys', you have made the sentence quite casual, so ' a pig, a dog' would be more natural.
2. They use as inspiration an array of animals including oryx, gorilla, gaz
2. They use as inspiration an array of animals including oryx, gorilla, gaz
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Thank you, Mr.M.
As to example 1, if I set aside the expression "Hi, guys" and put the sentence on a rather formal tone, would pig and dog sound more natural without the articles? Thank you.
As to example 1, if I set aside the expression "Hi, guys" and put the sentence on a rather formal tone, would pig and dog sound more natural without the articles? Thank you.
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Not really-- 'a bunch of' remains. You are going to need a very objectivized context in order to drop the articles naturally. Something like:
Please list these names of animals in alphabetical order: pig, dog, oryx, gorilla, gazelle, kakapo.
Please list these names of animals in alphabetical order: pig, dog, oryx, gorilla, gazelle, kakapo.
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