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Cat desk Posted 8 years ago
Grammar

Usage and omission of "the"

Hi there, can anyone please tell me if I can omit the in the following sentence? Is the in the following sentence optional?
  • (The) villagers in this village are very rich because they use modern technology for cultivation.
And one more question, I was watching a cricket match and I heard a commentator (a native speaker) saying "The match is in an interesting stage. Indian fans are shouting for Virat Kohli and his team." Don't you think it should be "the Indian fans are shouting for Virat Kohli and his team." because the commentator perhaps was talking about the people present in the stadium. This is not the only case. Many times I have seen in live reporting and news paper reporting, news reporters often omit the.

Some days ago in a news channel a reporter was giving reports to his anchor saying "You can see people are chanting slogans in front of the parliament and police are trying to stop them." I think it should be ".....the people are trying to......" because the people in this case were specific and the people who were present there.

Can anyone please explain this?
  

Top answer

cat desk (The) villagers in this village are very rich "the" is optional. "the" with a plural implies "all". Without "the" the reader is free to understand it as "all" or just "some", but it usually means "some".

— CalifJim

  • cat desk (The) villagers in this village are very rich "the" is optional.
  • "the" with a plural implies "all".
  • Without "the" the reader is free to understand it as "all" or just "some", but it usually means "some".
  • cat desk Indian fans are shouting for Virat Kohli and his team.
  • Not necessarily all of them.
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2 Answers
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cat desk(The) villagers in this village are very rich

"the" is optional. "the" with a plural implies "all". Without "the" the reader is free to understand it as "all" or just "some", but it usually means "some".

cat deskIndian fans are shouting for Virat Kohli and his team.

Not necessarily all of them. Adding "t

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American English especially is very article-heavy, and when in doubt you should always put the article in, since the odds are heavily in your favor of being right. And even if you make a mistake, it doesn't sound as bad as omitting the article when it should be there. For example: "I'm majoring in the chemistry in college." This is an error, the article should not be there. But it doesn't

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