Anonymous  +  196313 Mon, 13 Feb 06 02:26 PM Hi, There were three sentences with differing articles, which one (or ones) is (are) right? 1. He is the ex-curator of a museum of prehistoric cave painting. 2. He is ex-curator of a museum of prehistoric cave painting. 3. He is an ex-curator of a museum of prehistoric cave painting.   The expert seems to favor #1 and #2, but wondering why not #3?   Mr. Micawber, the expert, will might put aforth the argument that there are very few cave painting galleries around and certainly only one in the sepaker's range of context and it also is a title, as he did on one other post, so #1 and #2 are tthe ones he favor. But how about #3, can it be acceptable too?   Anonymous Articles

	milky  +  196410 Mon, 13 Feb 06 06:57 PM  Anonymous wrote: Hi,  But how about #3, can it be acceptable too?   Sure it can: He is an ex-member of  the CIA. He is an ex-student of NYU. milky Joined on Thu, Jan 15 2004 Senior Member 3,149 Hume said that if we had perfect or complete descriptive knowledge of reality, we could not, by reasoning, derive a single valid "ought".

	milky  +  196411 Mon, 13 Feb 06 06:59 PM  Anonymous wrote: Hi,  But how about #3, can it be acceptable too?   Sure it can: He is an ex-member of  the CIA. He is an ex-student of NYU. He is an ex-boyfriend of a friend of a friend. ;-) milky

	davkett  +  196414 Mon, 13 Feb 06 07:16 PM Actually, #3 sounds the best to me. I think nos.1 and 2 sound odd with the phrase 'a museum'; more natural would be to use those two forms when the museum is specified by name, as in The Museum of Prehistoric Cave Painting.  Then no.3 would be used only if there were more than one ex-curator of that museum. davkett Joined on Tue, Jun 7 2005 Pennsylvania, USA Senior Member 2,788 "The rose stays fresh in its name..." -Bernard of Morlay

	Ryanz0r  +  196454 Mon, 13 Feb 06 10:12 PM In my opinion number 2 is incorrect, but I may well be mistaken if Mr. Micawber thinks otherwise. For numbers 1 and 3: number 1 is correct if he/she was the only curator, and if there is only one curator now (or none, but that would be improbable); number 3, conversely, is correct if there were two or more curators employed beforehand, and/or there are two or more curators now. Sorry about the wordiness there. Ryanz0r Joined on Wed, Feb 8 2006 Torquay, England New Member 19 Me have the grammar bad!

	CalifJim  +  196531 Tue, 14 Feb 06 02:48 AM RyanzOr, The same thought crossed my mind.  If not incorrect, then the second one is at least a little anomalous because of the "ex-".  Without the article, we have a title or occupation:  He is curator of ... would strike me as a possibility.  But I don't sense that "ex-curator", "ex-president", "ex-anything" is really a title or occupation, the "ex-" being a signal of unemployment! I don't know whether that was what you were referring to. CJ CalifJim Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004 California Veteran Member 22,447 "There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche Articles