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Jigneshbharati Posted 6 years ago
Grammar
The air
The air, the water, the food and the surfaces around us are populated with microorganisms.
https://alevelbiology.co.uk/gcse/immune-system/
Please explain the use of "the" before "air, water, food and surfaces".
https://alevelbiology.co.uk/gcse/immune-system/
Please explain the use of "the" before "air, water, food and surfaces".
Top answer
We could just say 'air', but once we modify it to 'air around us' it sounds better to use a determiner - especially as it sits among a group of similar items. We are referring, in the structure of the sentence, to a particular part of 'air', although of course we know in reality it's all air.
- We could just say 'air', but once we modify it to 'air around us' it sounds better to use a determiner - especially as it sits among a group of similar items.
- We are referring, in the structure of the sentence, to a particular part of 'air', although of course we know in reality it's all air.
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1 Answers
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We could just say 'air', but once we modify it to 'air around us' it sounds better to use a determiner - especially as it sits among a group of similar items. We are referring, in the structure of the sentence, to a particular part of 'air', although of course we know in reality it's all air.
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