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Latest post Sun, Jan 11 2004 8:58 PM by fishingshu. 4 replies.
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fishingshu  +  18929 Sun, 11 Jan 04 08:58 PM
Hello All,

I have been bugged by the article "the" for quite sometime. Can someone enlighten me on this?

Thanks,
Shu
Joined on Sun, Jan 11 2004
New Member 02
pedant, 5 yr 318 days ago
You seem to have a firm grasp of it. What specifically bothers you about it?
fishingshu  +  19018 Tue, 13 Jan 04 12:20 AM
Lots of times I am not sure whether I should use "the" or not. For instance, I write "legal counsel believes that this patent is likely to be held unenforceable". The I start struggling between "the legal counsel" and "legal counsel". So on and so forth. I am just wondering if there is any general rule regarding its usage or there is some book or maybe a monograph discussing it.

Many thanks,
Shu
OrujoV  +  19108 Tue, 13 Jan 04 04:38 PM

Well. A very good question, and I`ll try to answer it! In this sentece you can use "the" if you`re talking of a particualr thing. I don`t actually know the meaning of that word "legal councels", but I`m sure if it`s not a particular thing, you don`t need to use "the' there,ok? Anyway, this is my opinion, but I could be wrong, that`s why be careful....
Joined on Tue, Jan 13 2004
Baku,Azerbaijan
New Member 10
Thanks for reading my message! :))
pedant  +  19177 Wed, 14 Jan 04 04:37 AM
Legalese has its own peculiarities, and I am no expert. I do, however, watch TV as much as the next pedant and so have heard plenty of courtroom dialogue in which the "the" is dropped, particularly when refering to "councel", "defense", and "witness". From my POV, it all seems pretty idiomatic.
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