By Definite articles, Plurals

Hi, The invention of the elevator made skyscrapers possible. My question is, since we don't have any "elevator" in mind, why do we have to use a definite article for the word elevator? When we speak of an item in general like this, we say 'the'. Perhaps it is because, in a context like this, we...

According to the Grammar Guide, as far as I can remember, you put definite article for things in specific, normally used with adjective or noun modifier (the blue bag/grammar book/denim skirt) and wondering how they can be. Maybe someone can illustrate (literally) what that is saying...

Hi, According to the Grammar Guide, as far as I can remember, you put definite article for things in specific, normally used with adjective or noun modifier (the blue bag/grammar book/denim skirt) and wondering how they can be. Maybe someone can illustrate (literally) what that is saying...

Only 1, 3 and 5 are acceptable. The rest are incorrect. 4 would be OK without the indefinite article. For example, "I have but little clothes to wear."

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...

A and an signal that the noun modified is indefinite, referring to any member of a group. These indefinite articles are used with singular nouns when the noun is general; the corresponding indefinite quantity word some is used for plural general nouns. The rule is: a + singular noun...

Xess gave some good examples, and I'll add what I can. "The Rolling Stones" is the full name of the band in question. If the word 'the' were not part of the band's name, then it would not be capitalized, and you would see it would see it written as "the Rolling Stones". The word 'the' is a...

Mmh, I don't quite agree with you my GoodMan...I think the definite article is needed in both sentences. It is actually 'the bat species' that we're talking about here. The other option would be to go for the plural :'Bats are the only mammals that can fly'.To me, the original sentences as...

"The" is the definite article, and has the same form in the plural: The boy, the boys / the girl, the girls / the table, the tables.

You could use 'the' as in They are the names of towns in the area however there's no need. Names is a countable noun used in the plural form so it is not necessary to have a determiner , such as the definite article, preceding it and from the context (sorry you didn't provide the whole text)...