omission of "the" when listing things

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rainous

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With exception of longer and colder winter, I found the lifestyle of Quebec much similar to that of Sweden: the public transportation system, (the) direction of traffic, (the) busy streets of downtown and the socializing of people in after-hours.

Dear teachers,

If you can see above, while listing 4 different things, I have omitted "the" for the second and third listed items, but I am not sure if it's grammatical.

Could you tell me whether that's acceptable?
and I would be grateful if you could also check the grammar of the whole sentence.

Thank you.
 

emsr2d2

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With the exception of the longer and colder winter(s), I found the lifestyle of Quebec [STRIKE]much[/STRIKE] quite/very similar to that of Sweden: the public transport[STRIKE]ation[/STRIKE] system, the direction of traffic, the busy downtown streets [STRIKE]of downtown[/STRIKE], and the late-night socializing. [STRIKE]of people in after-hours. [/STRIKE]

Dear teachers,

[STRIKE]If[/STRIKE] As you can see above, while listing 4 different things, I have omitted "the" for the second and third listed items, but I am not sure if it's grammatical.

Could you tell me whether that's acceptable?
[STRIKE]and[/STRIKE] I would be grateful if you could also check the grammar of the whole sentence.

Thank you.

Please see my amendments above in red. I personally find keeping "the" in sounds more natural in this particular sentence, especially given that it definitely sounds odd to omit it with the fourth item in the list. I have also added two "the"s to your first sentence!
 

rainous

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With the exception of the longer and colder winter,

I got a question regarding the phrase above:

Was it necessary to add "the" in front of exception because I found a bunch of same phrases with it on the web?
 

5jj

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Was it necessary to add "the" in front of "exception" because I found a bunch of same phrases with it on the web?
Don't trust the webs for examples of good English. 'The' is necessary.
 

emsr2d2

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I got a question regarding the phrase above:

Was it necessary to add "the" in front of exception because I found a bunch of same phrases with it on the web?

Despite what you may have found on the predictably untrustworthy net, "With the exception of ..." is the standard correct phrase.
 
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