HSS
Junior Member
- Joined
- Jun 2, 2007
- Member Type
- English Teacher
- Native Language
- Japanese
- Home Country
- Japan
- Current Location
- Japan
I was wondering if prepositional phrases alone were strong enough to give the nouns that they modify the definite article the.
Upon reading (1), without any context for the sentence known to you, which do you feel is the reason the people has the before it, that they are already mentioned before or there is any other reason other than that there is the prepositional phrase in Japan, or that there is in Japan?
Also, do my paraphrases for the above sentences, which are in some sort of unknown contexts, work? If there is any flaw, please point to it.
Upon reading (1), without any context for the sentence known to you, which do you feel is the reason the people has the before it, that they are already mentioned before or there is any other reason other than that there is the prepositional phrase in Japan, or that there is in Japan?
- The people in Japan speak Japanese.
- People in Japan speak Japanese.
Also, do my paraphrases for the above sentences, which are in some sort of unknown contexts, work? If there is any flaw, please point to it.
- The people in Japan speak Japanese. = The people that are in Japan speak Japanese. = All the people that are in Japan speak Japanese.
- People in Japan speak Japanese. = People that are in Japan speak Japanese. = People, who are in Japan, speak Japanese = Most of the people that are in Japan speak Japanese.