A and the

Question

Hello.
I know these articles may be considered the easy part of English grammar, nevertheless I find them very frustrating. I am aware of the rules, but during my work I often cooperate with English native speaker, and have a hard time to grasp such corrections:
Instead of: "we investigate the seasonal variability in..." he proposed:
"We investigate seasonal variability in..." without any article. Was variability treated as a non-count noun?
Thank you in advance for the answer.

Fivejedjon · Accepted Answer

Anna NiewiadomskaI know these articles may be considered the easy part of English grammar,

You know something I don't.

The 'rules' are very complex indeed, and few learners, no mater how good their English, master them completely.

Very often there is more than one possibility, depending on exactly how different speakers view a situation. In business reports, some native speakers use fewer articles than we might normally expect.

In your 'seasonal variability' example, the use of 'the' might suggest that you know there is seasonal variability; omitting the article might suggest that you are trying to find out if there is seasonal variability. But, note my use of the word 'might'.

Anonymous · Answer

Hi. Please help me with these sentential situations.

1. Let's say there is a person who visited a certain school for the first time, and then went on to tell his friend, John, about the impression he got for the school.

Hi, John, the place was fabulous. Clean classrooms and a great library. But I was surprised to find not many students in classrooms (How about "in the classrooms"?). Maybe they have a small student body.

2. When writing a wise-saying, would it be correct to put the definite article before "super icy ground"? I think generally we wouldn't put the definite article before it when saying something generally, as in the context of saying something wise
(I think that's what a wise-saying is). Also, would you use a semicolon for the example sentence below? Sorry, I couldn't come up with something appropriate for the part "such and such." Also, I think there is life in super icy ground. Thank you for your help in advance.

Life is "such as such"; remember, there even is life in super icy ground (How about "in the super icy ground"?).

A and the

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