By Indefinite articles, Nouns

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...

Hi Jackson 5: As name suggests a count noun is countable, then how can one use indefinite article a or an with it?In grammar, 'countable' means that you can count the noun concerned. For example. an egg, one egg, two eggs, etc. 'Uncountable' means that particular noun cannot be literally...

1. a car, a pencil, an elephant, a man, a person, a concept; sand, water, meat, butter, milk, wine; faith, sincerity, persistence, knowledge 2. cars, pencils, elephants, men, people, concepts; some cars, some pencils, some elephants, some people, some concepts 3. the car, the pencil, the...

1. "a cat" 2. "cats" (as in "I hate cats") 3. "the cat" ("That's the cat that stole my sausage!") 4. The cats ("Those are the cats of Yuri Kuklachev") 5. There may exists some integer amounf of cats, right? The indefinite article "a" means "one" wich doesn't contradict with counability, though...

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, Mr. M. Why is that a person usually finds this to be the case for a variable noun like 'pizza'? Why is that the use of word 'large' makes a difference, whereas the use of the word 'pepperoni' would not? I would like to have a large pizza. I like pepperoni pizza. I like a large...

... the old grammarians would have called 1.1 and 2.1 verbal nouns. No. See below. See Sect. 273 of B&S. All examples with the ---ing of --- are called gerunds there. 1.1 «The singing was excellent» I'm not sure what B&S would call this, but neither verbal noun nor gerund is...

Thanks for the clarification, I didn't know that source was so old. So, assuming the modern terminology, the term gerund comprehends a much wider class of (?)words. And the "gerunds" in the examples below are very different but all gerunds, while the old grammarians would have called 1.1 and 2.1...

«Please note that CalifJim seems to have said a gerund can have a or an before it, not a verbal noun. But you and CB seem to be saying only verbal nouns can have an adjective as well as an article. I am confused. Help.» I am sure that if CJ did say that, he should have provided some...

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...