0
Guest Posted 21 years ago
Grammar
Wind, water
In my textbook, there is an article about energy. It says"energy from the wind", "energy from water". As I understand, both wind and water are uncountable nouns. Why are they treated differently in terms of the article "the"? "the" precceds "wind", but not "water"
Top answer
It would not have been wrong, in my opinion, to have said "energy from wind". The "the" seems to be optional there. " I don't know if there is a definitive answer to that question.
- It would not have been wrong, in my opinion, to have said "energy from wind".
- The "the" seems to be optional there.
- " I don't know if there is a definitive answer to that question.
- It may be a purely arbitrary choice that native speakers make without ever asking the reason.
- Maybe wind is different from water in that any movement of air is a particular instance of air movement, and so is a sort of individual event -- a strong wind, the cold wind, but water is simply a substance which is exactly the same in every case.
Get the Weekly English Kit 📬
New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.
1 Answers
0
It would not have been wrong, in my opinion, to have said "energy from wind". The "the" seems to be optional there.
So the question becomes, "Why can "wind" optionally take "the" and "water" not take it at all?"
I don't know if there is a definitive answer to that question. It may be a purely arbitrary choice that native speakers make without ever asking the reason.
So the question becomes, "Why can "wind" optionally take "the" and "water" not take it at all?"
I don't know if there is a definitive answer to that question. It may be a purely arbitrary choice that native speakers make without ever asking the reason.
0
Related Questions