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Anonymous Posted 17 years ago
Grammar

Why articles for instructional words?

Hi. Would you please tell me why there are articles in front of these what I see as names? I think it is done because the words "Frame" and "Picture" are common nouns eventhough capitalized. I tihink it isn't the same with the word "Insert." I think (I am not sure though) we can write "Click outside the Picture Frame button" (if it is a button - that needs to be clicked).

1) Click outside the Picture Frame or click Insert on the menu.

2) Click on the Picture and insert Clip Art.
  

Top answer

Anonymous I think it is done because the words "Frame" and "Picture" are common nouns eventhough capitalized. " Yes, pretty much. "Picture frame" is a noun that describes the actual object you click on, whereas "Insert" is just a text label.

  • Anonymous I think it is done because the words "Frame" and "Picture" are common nouns eventhough capitalized.
  • " Yes, pretty much.
  • "Picture frame" is a noun that describes the actual object you click on, whereas "Insert" is just a text label.
  • You can talk about "a picture frame" or "the picture frame", but not about "an insert" or "the insert" (well, actually, you can , but that's a completely different meaning to the one needed here).
  • If a noun such as "picture frame" or "picture" is just a generic description of the object then it doesn't need to be capitalised.
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2 Answers
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Anonymous I think it is done because the words "Frame" and "Picture" are common nouns eventhough capitalized. I tihink it isn't the same with the word "Insert."

Yes, pretty much. "Picture frame" is a noun that describes the actual object you click on, whereas "Insert" is just a text label. You can talk about "a picture frame" or "the picture frame", but
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Mr Wordy"Picture frame" is a noun that describes the actual object you click on,

Not that it matters hugely, but I meant to say:

"Picture frame" and "picture" are nouns that describe...

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