By Numbers, Definite articles

Hi NewYou remind me of Inchoateknowledge! I agree with you with regard to what would be more logical. The fact is, unfortunately for us foreigners, that logic and English very often have nothing to do with each other. Some expressions just exist because native speakers use them. The definite...

Curtains means the items in general or as a kind, without specific reference or specified numbers.We need curtains = there are no curtains; any (appropriate) ones will do; nonspecified curtainsLions are dangerous = all lions; any lions; generic lionsWe are making plans for the holiday =...

A) What's the date today? --> (Today is) 19th August.B) What's the day today? --> (Today is) Saturday.Could you please answer the following questions:6) Americans write dates in the Month, Day format. As far as I know, both of these are correct: August 19 and August 19th. Which is more...

Some has a variety of uses. As an indefinite article (like a/an) it modifies plural count nouns and mass nouns.Some boys walked down the street.Some cold beer would taste great right now.I would say some examples and some material. In some cases, the context or knowledge of the world may be...

Teo wrote:Grammatically conceivable, but nevertheless still unacceptable on grounds of extreme unnaturalness. We do not normally use 'any' with an unmodified countable noun in a simple interrogative of this type (#5, you will observe, is a negative, not interrogative sentence, to which somewhat...

WANG CHUN wrote: 1. Ancient and modern human beings use their great intelligence to invent machines that help people lead a comfortable and convenient life. My problem with this sentence is that it is not possible for ancient human beings to do anything any more, so using the present tense...

Xess wrote:I beg to differ, it must have the 'the' there. "It is cool and excitng as the Playstation 3." is correct. It is quite hard to explain but generally anything that can accept 'a' or 'an' as the article can also accept 'the'. If you can say "I bought a Playstation", then you...

Nobody has volunteered yet so let me give it my best shot... 'preparations' : why plural ? shouldn't it be singular if referring to the process of preparing something ? 'place/location/meeting point' : I can't make up my mind here ; also '... of negotiation' or '... for negotiating' can't...

Hello, Leonine-- we're glad you found us! The definite article the works in this situation just as it does with different nouns: it primarily indicates previous mention or specificity: State the other kinds of pets. -- rather hard to do; it seems to indicate a specific number of kinds,...

I came upon a sentence in a newspaper article today. It reads: 'Consumer DVD recorders use the same, smaller number of bits for each frame, regardless of detail.' Here, a comma is needed because the two adjectives both modify 'number'. It can be rewritten as: 'Consumer DVD recorders...