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Originally Posted by musicgold  Hi all, I always get confused with common sentences used in daily conversations, for example, - What is portfolio or what is a portfolio?
- What is extrapolation or what is an extrapolation?
My confusion is related to the use of articles. I get further confused if I am not sure whether the word about which I am asking is a countable or non-countable noun. Is there a rule of thumb for such situations? Thanks, MG. |
The rule of thumb, as you say, would be:
-if it's countable (e.g. portfolio), you would say: What is 'a portfolio'?
-If it's uncountable (e.g. chaos) you would say What is 'chaos'?
The problem with a word like 'extrapolation' is that it can be either countable or uncountable, depending on the context.