Just heard the following line on a British TV series: ‘You might be entitled to compensation for mess we’ve caused you’. Should it be 'for the mess we’ve caused you?
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Yes, Torsten, because it clarifies and specifies ‘mess’. It would sound unnatural without the definite article. Yet, you have to take into account that text writers may occassionally make mistakes or that you perceived the line wrongly; the actor probably said: ‘the mess’, and spoke the line so quickly that you didn’t hear it. There’s also the possibility that the actor did not say ‘the’. In that case, the director could have said: ‘Cut, over’, but he didn’t, because it would have cost too much money to do the entire scene all over again.
I hope I’ve given you a satisfactory answer.
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Hi Torsten,
Compensation, probably meaning, financially. Well, I think financial retribution is so dull, especially, when people are aware of what they did wrong. So, it’s important to know that caring for each other is the most valuable thing in life and that’s priceless.
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