against a West Brom team

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Hi,
Sorry to bother you with that again but I can’t still accept the indefinite article in the cases like this: “I think they will find things tough on Monday night against a West Brom team that are on the up.”

–Why always referring to teams? Could you give any examples other than that?

Don’t get me right, I’m just asking.

2

It’s probably because the members of the team keep changing though the name of the team remains the same. So, a ‘West Brom team’ is possible.

3

Thanks, Anglophile.
I wonder if you could somehow compare it with the ‘a’ used when naming a day of the week but not referring to any particular one, like:
 I was born on a Thursday.
 Could I come over on a Saturday sometime?
(Just one Thursday\ Saturday from an endless string of them).

4

That’s the general idea, Eugene. This particular current team (line up) as opposed to others.

5

I wonder if it would sound the same with ‘the Baggies’ instead of West Brom:"…against a Baggies team\against the Baggies team"?

6

Welcome, Eugene. I have given a thought to what is indicated within parentheses. You are right when you say ‘a Thursday’ is just any one Thursday from the string of endless Thursdays. But I don’t think we can liken it to ‘a West Brom team’, which could be something like ‘a 2015 Thursday’. Do you agree?

7

When making comparison to days of the week, I was just trying to create any meaningful analogy to myself, my language having no articles.
At first reading, you think you would nicely do without any article in the sentence. You feel something missing. Then you read it with ‘the’ and it sounds like ‘that specific WB team” [one of many WB teams, implying others could be on their way down].
Which brings us to the accepting the ‘a’ as the meaningful option.
Things like that you need to comprehend in order to use them correctly. What you can’t fully understand, you have to accept. I would be keeping my eye on it anyway…

8

I’m of the view that you may have to accept it only for the time being. Anyhow, we will, as you say, keep an eye on it until we are fully convinced.

9

I disagree.
You appear to be trying to change the parameters, presumably for your own purposes.

10

Is that the Royal ‘we’, Anglophile? Perhaps you have tried summoning someone to provide an opinion.
You appear rather desperate to find a way of not accepting what I say, despite the fact that I have not disagreed with your post in #2.

11

Yes, you could also use ‘a’ there. In each case, if you change ‘a’ to ‘the’ you would need to change the following phrase
Something like:
against a West Brom/Baggies team that are on the up
against the West Brom/Baggies team as they are on the up