In Nouns^x, Articles^x

Some proper nouns or names require the, some don't. In the phrase the Cow Power program all the words are common nouns and the article is associated with the last word, "program," which is not a proper noun, so the article must be used as there is only one such program.The article...

Thank you. How is Ondol different from these proper nouns (I think they are) that I see having definite articles?the Pacific OceanI think Mr. M said the definite article is needed for this name of program that is in quotes:The 'Cow Power Program' Is this program a proper name?And I see a...

Hi, Thank you.You said: The speaking of English is easy. (A verbal noun and because speaking is a noun, the is posible before it. Even an adjectival attribute can be used: The correct speaking of English is easy.) Speaking English is easy. (A gerund, which to my mind is neither a verb nor a noun...

Hi CB,thanks so much for your reply(i was the one who asked about the differences between verbal nouns and gerunds). i agree that there seems to be discrepancies between one grammarians usage and another's. I certainly like your definition of gerunds, in so far as they are unable to take the...

You'll have to wait for RayH's explanation for his preferences. He heard a fearful wailing of a dog is fine grammatically but it does suggest that you may hear different kinds of wailings of a dog and therefore the sentence may sound odd to some. The plural dogs simply indicates that...

hi, i've been struggling with coming to grips with the differences between verbal nouns and gerunds. e.g. John's singing the national anthem bothered me. or John's singing of the national anthem bothered me.which is correct, and in the second case is 'singing' a gerund or...

Hi, thank you.Why do you think RayH seemed to have said this has to be "the fearful wailing"?1)He heard a fearful wailing of a dogI think he said it has to be:2)He heard the fearful wailing of a dogI think RayH is correct but I also think no. 1 can be correct under a right situation. I...

A Little Help with Capitals This handout lists some guidelines for capitalization. If you have a question about whether a specific word should be capitalized that doesn't fit under one of these rules, try checking a dictionary to see if the word is capitalized there. Use capital letters in...

A word is a “part of speech” only when it is used in a sentence. The function the word serves in a sentence is what makes it whatever part of speech it is.For example, the word “run” can be used as more than one part of speech:
Sammy hit a home run. (run is a noun, direct object of hit)
You...

Fine, especially because of the adjectival attribute. Adjectives tend to enable the use of an indefinite article in many contexts. Examples: Birds were flying in the sky. Birds were flying in a blue sky.I had lunch. I had an early lunch.I saw George Bush on TV last night. I saw a sad George...