"Family" and "home" without the indefinite article

[Rachel Adams]

I am looking for an explanation of this use of "family" in terms of grammar without an article. Can any word be used like that? For example, can I use "home" in the same way without an article in my sentence?

"Money doesn't buy everything. You can't buy family/home with it."

 

[Tarheel]

You can't buy family with it - Family isn't something you can buy with money

 

[emsr2d2]

It works with "family". It doesn't work with "a home". You can't buy a home without money!

 

[slevlife]

The "a" is not optional; "a family" and "family" would have different meanings in the sentence.

- "Family" on its own refers to one or more people who are part of your family.
- "A family" would be a whole family unit, though what that means depends on context. E.g. it could mean a partner and kids, or it could refer to people like your parents and siblings.

"You can't buy family" is emphasizing the significance of blood relationships, that you can’t form by spending money. "You can't buy a family" would be a much more unusual thing to say, due to the difference in meaning.

You can see this meaning of "family" without an article in many other sentences. E.g.:

- "You're family, so you don't have to worry."
This could be said to an actual member of one's family or to a close friend. "You're a family" would be nonsensical in the same context, where you're talking to/about one person.

- "Weekends are better when spent with family."
This again has the meaning of "one or more members of your family." Talking about "a [random] family" here would be weird.

 

[emsr2d2]

Bear in mind that "family" doesn't necessarily mean the same thing to all people, nor does it always mean the same thing in different contexts. If you asked "Are you going on holiday with your family this summer?" to someone who's married with a couple of kids, and they all live together, they would assume you wanted to know if the four of them were going away together as a family. If you asked the same question to a single person who has no kids, they would take it to be asking if they're going away with their parents, siblings and/or more distant relatives (grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins etc).

 

[Rachel Adams]

What other words can be used this way like "family"?

 

[slevlife]

I told you that “family” and “a family” have different meanings here, so it’s not clear what your follow-up question means.

You could maybe say that “family” is operating here like a zero plural.

 

[Tdol]

I'm not a huge fan of You can't buy family. You can't buy into a family, etc, would work better for me. Or something different like you cannot put a price on family.