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Hello Timmy Ferrer
You could use all of the options that you mention in those sentences, though they would mean different things. For example, in 1, if you said 'a speech', I would understand it to mean the formal talk (see the second meaning) that the politician is giving. If you said 'the speech', there are two possibilities. It could also refer the formal talk she is giving, but which has already been mentioned in some way. Or 'speech' could refer to the way she speaks (under the first meaning).
Hope this helps.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Michaelgeorge,
The category of determiners is a large one and includes phrases such as a lot of and a great number of as well as single words. I would treat some more as a phrase rather than trying to break it down further.
More generally speaking, it's quite possible to use several determiners together. Possessive adjectives and numbers commonly co-occur. In the phrase my four dogs both the possessive adjective my and the number twelve are determiners.
The distinctions between determiner and adjective are sometimes debated and the categorisation is somewhat fluid. You can read a discussion on the topic here:
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/166474/is-a-determiner-considered-an-adjective-or-a-separate-part
Our focus on LearnEnglish is language learning rather than linguistics, so parsing sentences is not something we tend to provide help with. There are online parsers if you need to break down individual sentences:
https://www.link.cs.cmu.edu/link/submit-sentence-4.html
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Michaelgeorge,
Sometimes distinctions are made between predeterminers and postdeterminers, as you say, and you can certainly use them if you find them helpful.
Our focus on the site is really on language learning (learning to use the language) rather than learning about the language (linguistics), so the question really falls outside our area of interest.
If you need help with things like this then the relevant stackexchange forums are a good place to look.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello p t balagopal,
Both forms (with 'the' and without) are possible.
The choice depends upon whether the speaker thinks that the claims are already known to the listener or not. The definite article implies shared knowledge, so if I say 'the claims' then I am suggesting that you (the listener) knows which claims I am talking about. If I say 'claims' then I am assuming that this is the first time you have heard about the subject.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello p t balagopal,
It's difficult to be certain about article use without knowing the full context, but I think that both 'a' and 'the' would be possible here.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello p t balagopal,
The definite article before 'application' is appropriate here as you are talking about a specific application. An application would suggest that you have many applications from Mr. John for the revival of his account, and this is only one of them, which would be rather absurd.
In the second case, I think 'the' is also required. The account to be revived is specified and so the definite article is appropriate. It is the case that some companies have their own in-house preferences and treat some business functions as if they were abstract nouns in terms of article use, but this is unusual.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello beckysyto
In informal speaking, it's common for 'there is' to be used with a plural noun or singular noun and plural noun combination, so, for example, 3 is more common in speaking than 4. When, however, the first noun phrase is plural (as in 5), then 'there are' is more commonly used.
So, to answer your question whether 'there is/are' agrees with the first noun phrase in the sentence, the answer is yes, at least in informal speaking.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello agie,
Both forms are correct and there is no difference in meaning.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello agie
Both are grammatically correct. If it's clear that you're talking about the morning, then 1 is probably sufficiently clear.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Vitub
I'm afraid I don't know enough about either sentence to be able to know what they mean, so I can't really explain them or offer any other recommendations about them. If you include the full sentence, we might be able to help you more, but please note that in general we don't explain sentences that come from other texts unless you have a very specific question about them.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Sooraj
The form I would recommend here is 'to invite all of you'; the other two options are not correct in standard British English.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello tshantanu0,
The structure here is a defining relative clause and you can use either 'who' or 'that' as the relative pronoun here - it makes no difference. I'm not aware of any rule which says 'that' needs to be used after those words.
You can read more about relative clauses on these pages:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Abhimanyu Hannah
Yes, there's quite a lot behind the use or omission of articles, but I'm afraid it's not something that can be explained in a few short sentences. I'd recommend you work through the pages in this section, as well as read through our Articles 1 and 2 pages. If you have a specific question after that, please feel to ask it here.
Most people don't differentiate between 'log in' and 'log on', though there is a difference. You can read about it in the Difference.wiki or by doing an internet search for 'difference between login and logon'.
When someone is 'on call', they are available to work, but you must call them to ask them to work. This is typical for doctors and IT technicians, among others. I'm not familiar with 'in call', though you can be 'in a call', i.e. you are on the phone at that time and are not available to speak to someone else.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Inqilab,
The sentence has going to, which is a present continuous form as you say. However, it is followed by a passive form: a passive infinitive (to be held). Passive forms require the past participle, so held is used instead of hold.
Here's another example:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello cbenglish,
Both 'a' and 'the' are possible.
If you use 'a' then we understand that there are a number of signs of a tender heart and this is one of them. If you use 'the' then you are suggesting that only one thing shows a tender heart.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello dipakrgandhi
You have keen eyes! Good job spotting this inconsistency. To determine whether to use 'a' or 'an', you have to think how a word (in this case, an initialism) is pronounced -- as far as I know, 'SIP' is pronounced 'ess ai pee' and not 'sip'. In this case, as you can see from my transliteration of the pronunciation, the word begins with a vowel sound (the letter 'e' that is underlined). Therefore, 'an' would be the correct form.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello cbenglish,
Generally, the definite article is required when you are describing a selected group:
all of / some of / most of / none of / half of / a majority of / a minority of the Indians surveyed
However, sometimes the article is omitted with half of, a minority of and a majority of. So in this case, both options are possible.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi dipakrgandhi,
I can't say for sure without knowing the context, but presumably it's because this is the first time the reporter has mentioned this particular report. Although we speak about 'general' and 'specific' determiners, remember the key issue in many cases is whether we think the person we are speaking to will know which particular thing we are speaking about. If this is a radio news report, for example, and the reporter is just beginning her segment on it, she could not reasonably assume that her audience knows about the media report being discussed at this point in time.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello cbenglish,
The term love marriage is used in the same way as marriage in terms of the use of articles. For general use all articles are possible, but there are slight differences in meaning.
a + singular countable noun
we can use this with general meaning when we are talking about something which defines the group.
For example:
In other words, being an impressive sight is one of the characteristics of an elephant; if we saw an animal and it was not impressive then we could be fairly sure that it was not an elephant. We are talking about any elephant here - it is true of them all.
the + singular noun
we can use this with general meaning when we are talking about our image or concept of the noun.
For example:
Here we are not talking about a real elephant, but rather the concept of 'elephant' in our heads.
no article + plural countable noun or uncountable noun
we use this to talk about what is normal or typical of a type. It may or may not be true of all individuals but it is typical of most.
For example:
Here we are talking about the average height of Swedes, not any particular person or concept.
The distinctions are subtle but sometimes can be important.
For example, we can say with general meaning:
However, we cannot say:
This is because being in danger of becoming extinct may be true but it does not define the whale.
I hope that helps to clarify it for you.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team