Well, I think "the" is mandatory because the word "independence " has been specified."They celebrated the 100th anniversary of the declaration of the independence of the country."
Can I understand that "the" before "independence" is optional?
I wouldn't use that "the" at all."They celebrated the 100th anniversary of the declaration of the independence of the country."
Can I understand that "the" before "independence" is optional?
"They celebrated the 100th anniversary of the declaration of the independence of the country."
Can I understand that "the" before "independence" is optional?
Can you write out some complete sentences for us?Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA)
1 . THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE 10
1 . INDEPENDENCE OF THE 1
Hi, 2006 and Sparser. I'm confused about this point. I got the above results from the COCA. Could you tell me why in some cases there is the 'the' in front of 'independence of the' while in others there isn't. (Isn't it the same grammatical structure?)
Thank you in advance.
Can you write out some complete sentences for us?
"They celebrated the 100th anniversary of the declaration of the independence of the country."
I would say it is correct with 'the' or without. I think the difference is one of focus.
Without 'the':
1) They celebrated the 100th anniversary of the declaration of independence of the country." In bold is a noun. Paraphrased I would write:
They celebrated the 100th anniversary of the country's declaration of independence.
With 'the':
2) They celebrated the 100th anniversary of the declaration of the independence of the country."
Paraphrased you could write:
They celebrated the 100th anniversary of the independence of the country's declaration. (Which is not very good English so maybe below is a better paraphrase.)
They celebrated the 100th anniversary of the independence of the country being declared.
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