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MustAsk Posted 13 years ago
Grammar

What day of the month

Hi,

Does anyone know here the reason why you say 'the' in

On what day of the month were you born?

It makes little sense to me. Why isn't it just 'day of month' which has the same construction as "what type of car". You don't hear a lot of people say "what type of the/a car", do you?

That definite article in 'day of the month' makes it sound as if you are talking about a particular month. So is there any grammatical explanation for that? It's one of those things that tick me sometimes... Maybe I'm just missing something?

Thanks!
  

Top answer

I suppose one might possibly think of it as a shortened version of On what day of the month that you were born in were you born? But such matters are really just idiomatic. Clive

— Clive

  • I suppose one might possibly think of it as a shortened version of On what day of the month that you were born in were you born?
  • But such matters are really just idiomatic.
  • Clive
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6 Answers
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I suppose one might possibly think of it as a shortened version of
On what day of the month that you were born in were you born?

But such matters are really just idiomatic.

Clive
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The usual rule is that a singular countable noun needs an article (or other determiner), so really it is the article-less expressions that require explanation. I think that article-less expressions of the form "A of B" tend to return a meaning that is an instance of B, e.g. "a kind/type/model/make/colour/class/variety/choice of car". "day of the month" does not mean an instance of a month, so it d
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GPY, what do you think about "day of a month"? Why do you think "day of the month" turned out to be the common expression instead of "day of a month".

Thank you all!
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MustAskGPY, what do you think about "day of a month"? Why do you think "day of the month" turned out to be the common expression instead of "day of a month".
I suppose that even if in some particular case the month isn't known or relevant, we feel that it must be defined, or definite. But largely I agree with what Clive said about it being just idiomatic.
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GPYI think that article-less expressions of the form "A of B" tend to return a meaning that is an instance of B, e.g. "a kind/type/model/make/colour/class/variety/choice of car". "day of the month" does not mean an instance of a month, so it doesn't fit into that pattern.
However, I just realised that this theory is slightly contradicted by the expression "tim
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MustAskOn what day of the month were you born? It makes little sense to me.
Where language is concerned sense doesn't always come into it. If everything in language had to make sense, we'd all drive ourselves crazy.

If the past of 'want' is 'wanted', why isn't the past of 'eat' 'eated'?
If the comparative of 'tall' is 'taller', why isn't the com
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