By Indefinite articles, Plurals

mass nouna noun (as sand or water) that characteristically denotes in many languages a homogeneous substance or a concept without subdivisions and that in English is preceded in indefinite singular constructions by some rather than a or an1: What is an indefinite singular construction?2: What...

Thank you, Eimai_Anglos. Are you saying a genitive cannot be made a countable noun or used as a countable noun? I think a guru has delivered expert advice on that aspect of grammar and I think it has been said a construction like "a shaking of a ground" means "an instance of shaking of a...

Hi, Can you tell me why do I see a lot of cases where the indefinite article 'a' is used instead of the definite article 'the' when the presumption is that there is only one correct or wrong anything at a moment ? You should try to find a correct course of action for the situation you are in...

Hi, Consider this sentence.He has a very good knowledge. What is the function of the aritcle 'a' in the sentence? ( I know that the articles can function as adjectives but never as adverbs..Well, the case here is different, isn't it?....Can an indefinite article modify an uncountable noun? ) ...

Vincent Teo wrote:Can I say, (a) Her lessons is very fun / funny / attractive/ boring / cool /good. lessons = plural. Your verb is singular. The collocation is "great fun" (b)She is a helpful, responsible and good manner teacher. "Well-mannered" - otherwise it is fine. (c) She is a short...

Hi NickelFrom the grammatical point of view it is absolutely of no consequence whether a noun is abstract or concrete. You might just as well stop thinking about that. I get the impression from your post that you know enough about that. What you should know is1. whether you can/must use the...

LOL, GG, and that seems simple to you? Grammar Geek wrote:Anyway, you need to let logic (is there logic in English?), the requirement to avoid ambiguity (is English not ambiguous?), the desire to avoid sounding silly (how do I know what sounds silly?), and lastly, what genuinely sounds right...

Thank you, Nona. Why would the following need to have an indefinite article, "a", when the word "children" is plural? a children's center As to the second sentence, how would you rewrite it? I agree with you that 'brought up' is a bad, if not incorrect, choice. Would the following be OK...

Hi,Cambridge Dic says "means" is plural, like scissors or pantsmeans (METHOD) plural noun What is the matter with the leading indefinite article then, as in "a means of"? Is it an idiom? But if we can single out one particular "means" of all available, then shouldn't it be countable?

Thanks, Marius. I will keep this rule in mind. What I am puzzled by, however, is the fact that either of the examples you gave me doesn't refer exactly to the sentence I gave.In your first example, we deal with proper names, no articles there, and in the second one, with one noun in plural and...