Hi Friends,
Would anyone kindly clarify the following:
Umbrella protects us against rain.
An umbrella protects us against rain.
Which of the above two sentence is correct. Especially I want to know whether an indefinite article is necessary in this case.
If you want the rule, I think the following could be helpful:
“Generic reference: We can refer to something in a generic way by using any of the three articles. We can do the same thing by omitting the article altogether.
• A beagle makes a great hunting dog and family companion.
• An airedale is sometimes a rather skittish animal.
• The golden retriever is a marvelous pet for children.
• Irish setters are not the highly intelligent animals they used to be.
Do not use articles when generalizing about uncountable nouns and plural countable nouns.
Examples: Curiosity is a great trait. (Uncountable) Water is an important resource. (Uncountable) Vegetables are good for you. (Plural countable) We like wine with our dinner. We adore Baroque music. We use roses for many purposes.”
–But even then, ‘umbrella’ being a countable noun, “Umbrellas protect us against rain” sounds a bit strange to my ear. I’d rather go with “The\an umbrella protects us against rain.”
Many many thanks to Eugene2114,
I understand what you have said and what you wanted to explain. All these are written in any grammar book. However, I don’t want to belittle your effort. Frankly speaking, I raised the question intentionally so as to create a debate among the Moderators and boarders. Unfortunately, none except you passed any comment on this.
I fully agree with what you have written. But, what is your opinion about the proverbs like—Pen is mightier than sword or Stupid is as stupid does?
In response to that, I’d resort to one more citation: “Important Most of these rules may not be followed by the media – newspapers, TV, etc. particularly in their headlines, so the readers at the basic level must remember that the media has a different way of writing the headlines in order to make them look more attractive or simpler!”
–Also, I’d add to that proverbs, mottos, ads etc.–all those things which are meant to sound aphoristic rather than strictly grammatical.
I will jump into the discussion. I disagree somewhat with Eugene’s guideline. In most cases, the only time the article can be omitted is when the noun is plural or uncountable. so “Beagle makes a great hunting dog.” is incorrect, but “Beagles make great hunting dogs.” is fine.
For the original question, "An’ is indeed necessary in this case.
As for your proverbs, it is “The pen is mightier than the sword.” “A pen is mightier than a sword.” is also grammatically correct, but “the” is used to show that we are talking about the entire class of pens and swords. I did not explain that well, but is is like saying “The elephant is the largest land animal.” It means elephants in general. Which is very odd, because articles are usually used for particular objects, but that is English for you!
In “Stupid is as stupid does.”, stupid is really an adjective that has been transformed into a quality. Like many qualities such as courage, or wisdom, it is uncountable and doesn’t require an indefinite article here. By the way, the “grammatically correct” version would be “Stupidity is as stupidity does.” but that is not as catchy.
Hi Luschen,
What is your opinion about the proverb, ‘Man is mortal’?
souba73
Hi Souba73, sorry I must have missed this. Grammatically, I don’t have a problem with “Man is mortal.” as here I would take mortal to be an adjective and “man” here means “mankind”. But the proverb itself seems pretty banal to me.
Especially since using ‘man’ as a synonym for all human beings is pretty outdated. Women are equal human beings so why use ‘man’ when referring to all human beings?[YSaerTTEW443543]
TOEIC listening, talks: A weather forecast predicts rainy and stormy conditions[YSaerTTEW443543]
Thanks, Luschen for your reply.
My question is : if ‘man’ denotes ‘mankind’, is this formula applicable to animals/insects etc. also?
Dear Friends,
Kindly peruse the following paragraph on cow (for children), where article before cow is omitted:
“Cow is our mother. It is a most important domestic animal. It gives us a very healthy and nutritious food called milk. It is a pet animal and many people keep her in their houses for many purposes. It is not a wild animal and found in many parts of the world. Everyone gives respect to the cow like a mother. Cow is worshiped in India as a goddess from the ancient time. People in India brings her at home as a dhan Lakshmi. Cow is considered as the holiest animal among all the animals. It is found in many varieties differentiating in the shape, size,”
My question is whether the omission of article in the above paragraph is permissible or not.
Souba73
The sentence is generic in character. So, an article is necessary, preferably the definite article, before the word ‘cow’.
As Luschen said, ‘man’ here means mankind which includes both men and women. So, it is an exceptional usage without the article but meaning ‘all human beings are mortal’.