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Anonymous Posted 17 years ago
Grammar
Use of definite article "the"
Hi. Let say this is a definition of the word "synonyms."
Synonyms are words that mean the same basically.
Or let's reword it like this, with a blank to mean something (a word) obvious.
Synonyms are words that have the same ___.
I feel we could put the definite article "the" in front of the word "words" in either of them like this.
Synonyms are the words that mean the same basically.
Synonyms are the words that have the same ___.
One argument I think I could laid out against what I said just before is that the above sentences don't seem to point to all the words but rather some or any words. I believe the pattern would be different than this, which I believe would be pointing to all the people.
XXX are the people who lived in this piece of land roughly from 1920 to 1930.
Synonyms are words that mean the same basically.
Or let's reword it like this, with a blank to mean something (a word) obvious.
Synonyms are words that have the same ___.
I feel we could put the definite article "the" in front of the word "words" in either of them like this.
Synonyms are the words that mean the same basically.
Synonyms are the words that have the same ___.
One argument I think I could laid out against what I said just before is that the above sentences don't seem to point to all the words but rather some or any words. I believe the pattern would be different than this, which I believe would be pointing to all the people.
XXX are the people who lived in this piece of land roughly from 1920 to 1930.
Top answer
The definite article is not wrong, but it is definitely odd there. Turn it around: Words that have the same meaning are synonyms.
- The definite article is not wrong, but it is definitely odd there.
- Turn it around: Words that have the same meaning are synonyms.
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7 Answers
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The definite article is not wrong, but it is definitely odd there. Turn it around: Words that have the same meaning are synonyms.
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Hi. Thank you. Would you tell me what the difference is?
Words that have the same meaning are synonyms.
The words that have the same meaning are synonyms.
Words that have the same meaning are synonyms.
The words that have the same meaning are synonyms.
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AnonymousI feel we could put the definite article "the" in front of the word "words"No. It's not normal to define an indefinite expression with a definite expression.
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Synonyms are the words that have the same __.
CJ
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Hi. Thank you. Would you please tell me what are some basic patterns of indefinite expressions? Is the sentence below what might be called an indefinte expression? (But I am not sure, though, especially because there is the definite article "the" in the middle of the sentence.)
I think things that people eat most aren't necessary the things that will benefit them the most.
I think things that people eat most aren't necessary the things that will benefit them the most.
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Now 'the' is OK, because it refers back to the previously-mentioned 'things that people eat most'.
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Anonymouswhat might be called an indefinte expression?No. By indefinite expression I meant, in essence, an indefinite noun phrase. Thus, the following are indefinite expressions. They typically do not refer to any specific instance of anything:
money
a child
bottles
a man I used to know
pots without lids
faith
impatience
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