in case of fire/a fire/emergency/an emergency

[joham]

in case of fire/a fire/emergency/an emergency

Does this expression work both with and without the article?

Thank you in advance.

 

[freezeframe]

in case of fire/a fire/emergency/an emergency

Does this expression work both with and without the article? Yes.

Thank you in advance.

 

[rhapsomatrics]

IN MY OPINION, ABSTRACT NOUNS CAN GENERALLY EXIST WITHOUT ARTICLES. HOWEVER, THEY CAN SOMETIMES BE USED WITH ARTICLES FOR SPECIFICATION OR EMPHASIS.eg words like love, anger,emergency can be used both with and without articles...love is a most inexpressible phenomenon.The love of a mother is priceless.A good soldier must prepare for emergency/cies.A malfunctioning alarm system is an emergency.Fire can break out anywhere.It took us days to put out the fire

 

[Barb_D]

rhapsomatrics, don't make the common mistake of confusing an abstract noun with a non-countable noun.

A dream is abstract, but it still is countable and requires an article.
Love is abstract and not countable (unless modified -- a love surpassing all others).
A fire is concrete (you can smell, see, hear, and feel it), and it has both a countable (need an article) and non-countable sense.
Luggage is quite concrete, but not countable.

There are many countable, abstract nouns that won't read as well-written English if you leave out the article.

If you were telling someone later "She dealt with the emergency very professionally" you need the article.

The original works because it's an abbreviated style, like a headline.

 

[rhapsomatrics]

rhapsomatrics, don't make the common mistake of confusing an abstract noun with a non-countable noun.

WITH DUE RESPECT,I THINK YOUR LAST POST WAS A LITTLE NONDESCRIPT AS I AM YET TO SPOT ANY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MY EXAMPLES AND YOUR PLETHORA OF SOMEWHAT REPETITIVE EXAMPLES, SAFE FOR A RATHER DISTURBING REPRESENTATION.NONE OF THE WORDS I USED IS A NON-COUNT NOUN...ANGER,LOVE,EMERGENCY AND EVEN FIRE(THOUGH I NEVER GAVE FIRE AS AN EXAMPLE OF ABSTRACT NOUN) read my uneditted post again

 

[freezeframe]

rhapsomatrics, don't make the common mistake of confusing an abstract noun with a non-countable noun.

WITH DUE RESPECT,I THINK YOUR LAST POST WAS A LITTLE NONDESCRIPT AS I AM YET TO SPOT ANY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MY EXAMPLES AND YOUR PLETHORA OF SOMEWHAT REPETITIVE EXAMPLES, SAFE FOR A RATHER DISTURBING REPRESENTATION.NONE OF THE WORDS I USED IS A NON-COUNT NOUN...ANGER,LOVE,EMERGENCY AND EVEN FIRE(THOUGH I NEVER GAVE FIRE AS AN EXAMPLE OF ABSTRACT NOUN) read my uneditted post again

rhapsomatrics, your obvious passion is commendable but might I suggest pressing the CapsLock key once, typing in proper sentences (possibly even including some breaks in your wall of text), relaxing, and adopting a less hostile tone?

cheers

 

[JTRiff]

I looked at a sign here... it says ' In case of Emergency' call -
so it's one of those phrases that has been accepted into the language, grammatically correct or not.

 

[5jj]

YOUR LAST POST WAS A LITTLE NONDESCRIPT

'Nondescript' is hardly an appropriate word for what strikes me as a useful clarification of something that often causes confusion. Incidentally, the word is normally used for the appearance of something, not its content.

It would be easier to read your posts if you turned off Caps Lock.

 

[rhapsomatrics]

rhapsomatrics, don't make the common mistake of confusing an abstract noun with a non-countable noun.

A dream is abstract, but it still is countable and requires an article.
Love is abstract and not countable (unless modified -- a love surpassing all others).
A fire is concrete (you can smell, see, hear, and feel it) I DON NOT THINK FIRE CAN EVER BE CONCRETE(THOUGH YOU CAN HEAR,SMELL AND FEEL IT YET YOU CANNOT TOUCH HOLD OR HANDLE IT)

 

[freezeframe]

rhapsomatrics, don't make the common mistake of confusing an abstract noun with a non-countable noun.

A dream is abstract, but it still is countable and requires an article.
Love is abstract and not countable (unless modified -- a love surpassing all others).
A fire is concrete (you can smell, see, hear, and feel it) I DON NOT THINK FIRE CAN EVER BE CONCRETE(THOUGH YOU CAN HEAR,SMELL AND FEEL IT YET YOU CANNOT TOUCH HOLD OR HANDLE IT)

Concrete doesn't mean "something you can hold". Atoms are concrete. Jupiter is concrete. I never held either.

Concrete means that it has physical properties. Fire is definitely concrete.

And you can definitely touch fire. It might hurt though.

And, one last thing, STOP TYPING IN CAPS -- IT'S RUDE.

 

[rhapsomatrics]

Concrete doesn't mean "something you can hold". Atoms are concrete. Jupiter is concrete.
Wow! Hostile,inappropriate,rude...quite a handful! .I type in blocs only when I launch through my tiny-keyed mobile phone which makes cap lock/unlock a bit herculean.
If fire is concrete because of its "physical properties" then air,water,gas,flame,oil,ray,reflection,refraction,etc are all concrete nouns,aren't they?

 

[freezeframe]

Concrete doesn't mean "something you can hold". Atoms are concrete. Jupiter is concrete.
Wow! Hostile,inappropriate,rude...quite a handful! .I type in blocs only when I launch through my tiny-keyed mobile phone which makes cap lock/unlock a bit herculean.
If fire is concrete because of its "physical properties" then air,water,gas,flame,oil,ray,reflection,refraction,etc are all concrete nouns,aren't they?

Yes, very good! You're catching on.

 

[rhapsomatrics]

Going by your physical property theory,don't you think that proper,common and even collective nouns all have physical properties? Or,can we say they are also concrete?

 

[freezeframe]

Going by your physical property theory,don't you think that proper,common and even collective nouns all have physical properties? Or,can we say they are also concrete?

Thank you for crediting me with inventing the wheel!

Nouns don't have any physical properties. Noun is an abstract noun.

And I personally don't plan on engaging in a spirited debate on this topic.

 

[rhapsomatrics]

Or,maybe we could say "all nouns,excluding abstract,are concrete...I think the truth is that we all are either too by-the-book or too indolent to accept the fact that some nouns fall outside our perennial coverage areas(abstract,proper,common,collective,countable,non-countable etc) I think some nouns fit into more than one of the above-listed classes.Where does this lead us?... improvised pairings such as NON-COUNTABLE CONCRETE,COUNTABLE CONCRETE etc.Let's try and re-classify these words:fire,gas,molecules

 

[rhapsomatrics]

Thank you for crediting me with inventing wheel!
Nouns don't have any physical properties. Noun is an abstract noun.
And I personally don't plan on engagin in a spirited debate on this topic.

I thought you said "fire",which is a noun,had/has physical properties?Or,has it lost them? Anyway,thanks for your time. Lest I forget,the word "noun" is not an abstract noun but a proper noun since it's the name of a particular part of speech

 

[freezeframe]

I thought you said "fire",which is a noun,had/has physical properties?Or,has it lost them? Anyway,thanks for your time. Lest I forget,the word "noun" is not an abstract noun but a proper noun since it's the name of a particular part of speech

This was a very amusing post. Thank you. :-D

There are many resources available on this topic. I recommend them.