The policeman denounced the man's claim that he had not been drinking, as he could smell the whisky on his breath.
Hello.
Recently I have seen the following sentence:
The policeman denounced the man's claim that he had not been drinking, as he could smell the whisky on his breath.
And let me ask a few questions:
1) What does 'denounce' mean here?
Based on this definition https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/denounce?q=denounce it can either mean 'to strongly criticize' or 'to tell the police', but both meanings don't seem for me to fit here.
2) Can 'denounce' mean 'reject' in this context?
3) Is it correct to say 'the whisky' or 'whisky' in this sentence to mean this kind of alcohol in general rather than any particular bottle of it?
Top answer
1. "Denounced" is a wrong word there. The writer meant "disputed" or "refuted" or something.
- 1.
- "Denounced" is a wrong word there.
- The writer meant "disputed" or "refuted" or something.
- 2.
- No.
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1. "Denounced" is a wrong word there. The writer meant "disputed" or "refuted" or something.
2. No.
3. Interesting. I never noticed it before, but we do use the article in that specific context. The cop smelled not whisky in general but that which was on the man's breath.
How can you tell when there's an elephant in bed with you? You can smell the peanuts on his breath.
01/2) To me, "denounce" seems to be the wrong choice of word. Perhaps something like "refute" was meant.
3) "the" is explained by its being "the whisky that is on his breath", i.e. some particular whisky. "whisky" would also work in this sentence, and in practice the difference between the two is very small in this case.
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