[Grammar] Why some plural nouns need an article the in front

Anna2004 · Oct 15, 2013

Why some plural nouns need an article the in front?

Is an placed correctly in the above sentence?

Thank you,

Anna

emsr2d2 · Oct 15, 2013

Anna2004 said:
Why do some plural nouns need [strike]an[/strike] the article "the" in front of them?

Is "an" placed correctly in the above sentence?

Thank you,

Anna

See my annotations in red above. You needed to say "the article 'the' ..." or "the definite article".

You will have to give us some examples of these plural nouns which must apparently be preceded by "the".

Anna2004 · Oct 15, 2013

So there is no formula for plurals. You have a full dictionary of nouns we can change to plurals. How do I know which ones need the article "the" in front of them? It's so confusing.

emsr2d2 · Oct 15, 2013

Use of an article is not based on whether a noun is singular or plural. It's based on context and sentence structure.

Here are a couple of examples but there are plenty of other constructions.

Birds have wings. (General statement - no article.)
The birds have wings. (We know which birds are being referred to - article necessary.)
I have birds in my loft. (There are some birds in my loft - no article.)
I have the birds in my loft. (We know which birds are being referred to - article necessary.)

Winwin2011 · Oct 15, 2013

emsr2d2 said:
Use of an article is not based on whether a noun is singular or plural. It's based on context and sentence structure.

Here are a couple of examples but there are plenty of other constructions.

Birds have wings. (General statement - no article.)
The birds have wings. (We know which birds are being referred to - article necessary.)
I have birds in my loft. (There are some birds in my loft - no article.)
I have the birds in my loft. (We know which birds are being referred to - article necessary.)

Hello ems

If we make general statements, can we say "The birds have wings" and "A bird has wings"?

Thanks.

Rover_KE · Oct 15, 2013

Winwin2011 said:
If we make general statements, can we say "The birds have wings" and "A bird has wings"?

As general statements: 'Birds have wings'; 'A bird has wings'.

Winwin2011 · Oct 16, 2013

Rover_KE said:
As general statements: 'Birds have wings'; 'A bird has wings'.

Generalisations with singular countable nouns

Sometimes we talk about things in general by using 'the' with a singular countable nouns. (68 Articles (8): talking in general by Michael Swan)

I was wondering what 'sometimes' mean in the above sentence. If we make general statements, can we say "The bird has wings" as well as "Birds have wings" and "A bird has wings"?

Thanks for your help.

MikeNewYork · Oct 16, 2013

Winwin2011 said:
Generalisations with singular countable nouns

Sometimes we talk about things in general by using 'the' with a singular countable nouns. (68 Articles (8): talking in general by Michael Swan)

I was wondering what 'sometimes' mean in the above sentence. If we make general statements, can we say "The bird has wings" as well as "Birds have wings" and "A bird has wings"?

Thanks for your help.

I don't know what Michael Swan meant by "sometimes", but it usually means "not always". We can say "The elephant (elephant in general) has a long trunk" or "An elephant (no particular elephant) has a long trunk" or "Elephants (all elephants) have a long trunk".

[Grammar] Why some plural nouns need an article the in front

Anna2004

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