0
Anonymous Posted 11 years ago
Grammar
The
In a sentence, I found the phrase " over the 4.6 billion years". There I want to know the usage of 'the'. Thanks a lot.
Top answer
6 billion years since the earth was first formed, land masses have been colliding and splitting. The refers to this particular time period, not some other equally-long time period.
- 6 billion years since the earth was first formed, land masses have been colliding and splitting.
- The refers to this particular time period, not some other equally-long time period.
Get the Weekly English Kit 📬
New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.
2 Answers
0
Your sentence probably read something like this:
Over the 4.6 billion years since the earth was first formed, land masses have been colliding and splitting.
The refers to this particular time period, not some other equally-long time period.
Over the 4.6 billion years since the earth was first formed, land masses have been colliding and splitting.
The refers to this particular time period, not some other equally-long time period.
00
"the 4.6 billion years" means a specific interval of 4.6 billion years that the reader already knows about, or that is just about to be defined (e.g. "the 4.6 billion years that have passed since the formation of the Earth").
0
Related Questions