When I was a boy/ boy

Question

When I was a boy I wanted so much to be an artist.is correct but is when I was boy correct too?Thanks.

Thomasjsauer · Accepted Answer

Hi Liveinjapa,

No, "when I was boy" is incorrect. Since boy is a noun, it must have an article, here "a boy". Omitting the article is correct for adjectives, e.g. "when I was little".

Regards,

Tom

Toms Mathew · Answer

thomasjsauerHi Liveinjapa,

No, "when I was boy" is incorrect. Since boy is a noun, it must have an article, here "a boy". Omitting the article is correct for adjectives, e.g. "when I was little".

Regards,

Tom

Hi,

So, it is compulsory to use an article before every noun............

Can't I say 'when I was a little boy'

Thanks.

Liveinjapan · Answer

Thanks, Thomas and Toms.

Got it.
I just found many of such incorrect usage on Google.

Thomasjsauer · Answer

Hi Toms,

Yes, you are absolutely right! The phrase "when I was a little boy" is correct. Since you have a noun, you must still have the article.

The rule you have stated "it is compulsory to use an article before every noun" is true for these kinds of examples of basic communication in English.

There is an exception to the rule for proper nouns. For example, the phrase "when I was King George" is syntatically correct, butdoesn't really make sense unless the speaker is an actor who has played King George in a theater or on film, the speaker is or believes he is a reincarnation of the deceased king, or the speaker is schizophrenic.

You can see how context and the creativity of language can blur the rules. In th future, I'll restrict my examples to basic communication in English, because that is what always works.

Regards,

Tom

Toms Mathew · Answer

Hi,

'One moment please'. Is it right? Here I didn't use any article, and moment is noun.

And 'Communicative English' and 'Written English' are entirely different.

(For discussion).

Thanks.

Thomasjsauer · Answer

@Liveinjapan: We're really digressing from your original question, so you may want to ignore this.

Hi Toms,

These are some great examples!

"One moment please" is correct as part of a dialog. It does not stand alone since it is a sentence fragment. It is, however, a language function asking someone to wait. The full sentence could be something like, "Could you wait one moment, please." Here, you have seen that quanitive adjective "one" has taken the place the indefinite article "a". Although awkward, it would not be possible to wait for "the moment" unless it has already been defined as a specific period of time.

"Commuicative English" and "Written English" work the same way: First, "English" is a proper noun, so it doesn't get any article when we're talking about the language as a whole. However, "the English" is correct when talking about the people of England. Although only used within linguistic circles, "an English" is possible when talking about a specific dialect.

I'm sure you can find many other examples that seem to defy the rule. The fun is digging down, sometimes deep, to find out what something means and how to categorize it.

Best regards,

Tom

When I was a boy/ boy

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions