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Mission, countable or uncountable

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Believer  #300596  Mon, 04 Dec 06 11:29 PM

Hi,

Please tell me whether the word 'mission' is countable or uncountable?

as mission

as Christian mission

as a mission to help others in need  

It might be my imagination but I see some words that seem to be strictly countable being written without the articles when followed with the word (preposition??) 'as', is it just my imagination?

Would you say the normal article usage rules apply no matter if a noun follows the preposition 'as' or not?   

  
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Clive  #300598  Mon, 04 Dec 06 11:34 PM

Hi,

Please tell me whether the word 'mission' is countable or uncountable? Countable

It might be my imagination but I see some words that seem to be strictly countable being written without the articles when followed with the word (preposition??) 'as', is it just my imagination?

He was elected as president of the company. 'President' here is used as a title, aand in this context of 'the company', there is only one president. Compare He was offered a job as a secretary.

Would you like to list some other examples of what you sometimes see?

Would you say the normal article usage rules apply no matter if a noun follows the preposition 'as' or not?  I'd prefer not to generalize. See the above examples.

Best wishes, Clive

  
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Believer  #300851  Tue, 05 Dec 06 02:59 PM

Thank you, Clive.

I can't think of anything else right now, but I would appreciate if you could tell me why there are no articles in front of all the nouns/cases below if they are countables.

as Christian mission

the relationship of Christian mission

relate to mission

  
Clive  #300988  Tue, 05 Dec 06 10:57 PM

Hi again,

#1 and #2 sound odd and wrong. Where did you find them?

#3 also sounds odd. It's like the strange, short-form, jargony English that NASA often uses.

Best wishes, Clive

  
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