In Definite articles^x, Plurals^x

Thanks Believer, I think I get what you meant.But still, how come there's no "the" before the generic noun "systems"? Is it just so common that people tend not to use "the" here?ie: "Use a noun plus definite article to refer to (no the) systems of communication."Thanks

I think I should have written like this: In corollary, I believe to gain the fluency in such situations, one should try to gain familiarity with various sentential structures and right use of phrases like the ones in dispute, and develop an eye to see the whole context, rather than relying on...

Believer wrote:In corollary, I believe to gain the fluency on such situations, one should be exposed to various sentential structures and (the) right use of the phrases under dispute, and develop an eye to see the whole context. Thanks for pointing this out, Believer, but how come...

Hi, I believe that the decision of whether to put a determiner in front of such sentences as below is largely depedent upon whether or not the whole context that the phrases in question/dispute is part of are showing the restrictiveness of the phrase or there exist prior precedents of such...

Aha! I was wondering how come writers never seem to omit "the" for generic plurals like "uses", "origins", but sometimes for less generic ones...Thank you so much Margie and everyone that helped!*stands and bows*

I think now I got it...got me a bit puzzled at first... When countable nouns are postmodified - especially by an of-phrase, the definite article normally precedes it...like in "How do we study the lives of galaxies?" But it is as well possible to omit the except with life which is limited...

Hi Margie, Thanks for trying to help me. But I was asking about restricted countable nouns. Why some has "the" and some don't?ie:What do (no the) observations of galaxies tell us?How do we study the lives of galaxies?One has "the" but the other don't....

Hi! Perhaps I can help you by one example: He likes the music of France. This structure is called "limited generic reference"... "Music" basically is a non-count abstract noun (you can't count or physically touch music...), which requires the zero article. If this non-count abstract noun...

Thanks Paco and Margie.Yes I got what both of you mean, but please take a look at my other post. How come countable nouns sometimes don't have "the" either?http://www.englishforums.com/English/DefiniteArticlePlurals/ckjrl/Post.htmThanks.

Hi gals/guys,I deeply appreciate your help during the past few days, and I seem to have a much better understanding on "the".However, there is one last case in which I don't know why sometimes "the" is used and sometimes isn't.Group A's pattern: a plural of something without "the"."A supercluster...