[Grammar] There were cellars under all the houses.

[kadioguy]

(In the novel The Wizard of Oz, from Oxford Bookworms Library)

Chapter 1. The cyclone

Dorothy lived in a small house in Kansas, with Uncle Henry, Aunt Em, and a little black dog called Toto.
There were no trees and no hills in Kansas, and it was often very windy. Sometimes the wind came very fast and very suddenly. That was a cyclone, and it could blow trees and people and buildings away. There were cellars under all the houses. And when a cyclone came, people went down into their cellars and stayed there.

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1. (In the novel The Wizard of Oz, from Oxford Bookworms Library)

Is the description natural to native speakers?

2.
a.There were cellars under all the houses.

b. There were cellars under all houses. [my sentence]

I think that (b) (without "the") is also OK, because we already know that it is referring to Kansas. "All houses" just mean 'any house in Kansas'. So (b) practically means the same as (a).

What do you think?

 

[GoesStation]

1. (In the novel The Wizard of Oz, from Oxford Bookworms Library)

Is the description natural to native speakers?

If you're asking about the description of the book, it's natural but incomplete. You have to include the author, L. Frank Baum.

 

[kadioguy]

If you're asking about the description of the book, it's natural but incomplete. You have to include the author, L. Frank Baum.

How about this?

[In the novel The Wizard of Oz, originally by L. Frank Baum, retold by Rosemary Border, from Oxford Bookworms Library]

 

[kadioguy]

a.There were cellars under all the houses. :tick:

b. There were cellars under all houses. [my sentence] :cross:

Can I say that (b) means that houses including but not limited to in Kansas had cellars under them?

 

[Rover_KE]

No. Forget it.

 

[jutfrank]

Can I say that (b) means that houses including but not limited to Kansas had cellars under them?

You're thinking in loosely the right way, but in this case using a zero article is much too general for the purpose of the sentence. The definite article is there to specify that the houses in question are the houses in Kansas.

 

[Tdol]

You could say all houses in Kansas had cellars.