By Articles, Idioms

Hi MuttleyUnfortunately there are a myriad cases involving proper nouns with adjectival attributes and the indefinite article. You'll just have to learn them piecemeal. As you said in your first post, a/an is often used with a person's name:We met a sad George yesterday.The indefinite article is...

Hello all Recently i bought "Oxford"s advanced learner"s dictionary".I would like to improve my vocabulary by daily using this dictionary.I need help on the following questions:1.)Can i learn 50 new words daily or is this too much for a single day.Then how much should i learn in a...

1a. Articles in this book just present some clues students might use to access target language in most situations rather than burden hem with difficult text.1b. Articles in this book just present some clues to students who might use them to access access what? in the target language in most...

Hello Chun! Your sentences make me remember my own lessons. Here is my try: 1. Articles in this book just present some clues to students who might use them to access access what? in the target language in most situations rather than burden them with difficult texts. 2. Its materials of...

Hello I am not sure if these sentence sare right or not in terms of their grammar, word choice, and semantics. If you find something wrong, please help me edit them. Thank you very much. 1. Articles in this book just present some clues students might use to access target language in most...

In spoken English the article is often used and earth isn't even capitalized. In scientific writing the names of all planets are capitalized and no article is used:Jupiter is the biggest planet.Earth is the only inhabited planet.No article is used in this idiom: What on earth did he say?CB

Feebs11 wrote:Grammatically, "mid-air" is an idiom that does not require an article. What has this to do with hummingbirds and cold air?Cold air also does not take the definite article which proves that not taking the article has nothing to do with being an idiom. Mid-air, cold air, etc is a...

Hi Pructus, Check this out... http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/hold+court I think, these two explanations fits into your situation... HTH, cheers JCD Btw: Is this from an article about OJ Simpson?

Bokeh wrote: Feebs11 wrote:it is one of those idioms that stands as it is.Nothing to do with that. Look:The hummingbird can even hover in cold air."The air" is a definite unique thing, whereas "mid-air" is more of an idea or concept.I'm sorry, it may be the time of night, but I do not follow...

Ah - now you're asking - and I am reading it properly! I cannot track a precise reason why mid-air does not take an article, but it doesn't - it is one of those idioms that stands as it is. I can only conclude that "mid-" takes the place of the article.