article

[david11]

Hello teachers,

I fount the following sentence in this forum.

Can any one very kindly sum up for me major discrepancies between English spellings and pronunciation and their reasons.

my doubt is that shouldn't there be an article before the word major because the writer clearly knows that there exist some discrepancies.so,he is specific on that.

[5jj]

I fountd the following sentence in this forum.

Can any one very kindly sum up for me major discrepancies between English spellings and pronunciation and their reasons.

m My doubt is: that shouldn't there be an article before the word 'major', because the writer clearly knows that there exist some discrepancies.spacesSo,spacehe is specific on that.

They are presumably asking about major (as opposed to minor) discrepancies rather than the major ones that everyone knows about.

[emsr2d2]

Hello teachers,

I found the following sentence in this forum.

"Can any one very kindly sum up for me major discrepancies between English spellings and pronunciation and their reasons."

My doubt is that shouldn't there be an article before the word "major" because the writer clearly knows that there exist some discrepancies exist? So, he is specific on that.

You're right, it should be "sum up for me the major discrepancies". Well spotted.

You have clearly been reading posts on this forum carefully so I would expect you to have noticed that we spend a lot of time reminding people that every sentence must start with a capital letter. We also always advise people to put the word(s) that their query is about in either italics or within quotation marks, so that they are clearly separated from the rest of the sentence.

[5jj]

I feel that the sentence is possible without the article. Using the article, which is perfectly acceptable, implies that the speaker wants to know about all the major problems, in my opinion.

[bhaisahab]

I think "the major differences" is more likely.

[5jj]

I think "the major differences" is more likely.

I agree. I just don't think that the article should be there; it is likely to be, in my opinion.

[david11]

They are presumably asking about major (as opposed to minor) discrepancies rather than the major ones that everyone knows about.

First of all, I apologize for making those silly mistakes. I try not to repeat those.


If I go by what 5jj sir is saying, even there I feel that there should be an article.


For eg,


There are two boys, one is tall and the other is short.

If we want to call the taller one what would we call?



Call the taller boy.


So,here too,as 5jj pointed out, we are calling one as opposed to other.

But the article appears, at least for me, to be likely.




My doubt is that shouldn't

My doubt is: that shouldn't



What is the difference between the above two sentence?

My doubt is that shouldn't

Is this wrong?

[emsr2d2]

My doubt is that shouldn't

My doubt is: that shouldn't



What is the difference between the above two sentence?

My doubt is that shouldn't

Is this wrong?

I was trying to find a way of rewording that part without changing too much of your original. The problem I had with it was that you followed "My doubt" with a question. Here are two possible variations.

My doubt is over whether it should be "major discrepancies" or "the major discrepancies".

My question is Shouldn't it be the major discrepancies?