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Hello Adya's,
Yes, you can use the form /ðiː/ for emphasis.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Hosseinpour,
It's good to try to make sense of how prepositions are used, but it's also important to realise that since they are used quite irregularly in English, sometimes you just have to use one or the other depending on the context. The general rules for 'in' and 'on' are summarised on this page. As far as I know, the prepositions are used in the same way with both 'road' and 'street'.
There is also quite a lot of variation in varieties of English -- in other words, in some places, 'in the road' may be more commonly used than 'on the road'. For example, I'd say that 'in the street' is the most commonly used in British English, whereas in American English, 'on the street' is more common. In American English, they also say 'in the street' but it implies being in the middle of the street in many cases.
'It's dangerous to walk in the street' is correct.
I hope this helps -- if you have any other specific questions, please let me know.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Adya's,
In phrases that discuss blows to or pains in a person's body, we tend to use 'the' instead of a possessive adjective. 'He was hit on the head' is what British native speakers say, not 'on
hishead'.All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Hosseinpour,
These are very subtle distinctions. We generally use at with a more general meaning than in. For example:
With some words the distinction is very small and it is really a question of conventions of use and I think both in and at could be used in both examples.
I would say that at a meeting suggests participation in a general sense: going to the place, meeting the people, chatting and also the actual meeting itself. On the other hand in a meeting suggests something more precise: the actual meeting itself from start to finish. However, the distinction is very subtle, as I said.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Hosseinour,
The -ing form is not needed here because the word read is intended to fit in the same place as party. We can think of the sentence like this:
I want to party and by party I mean (I want to) read books.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello omar123,
We use this and that with singular reference.
These and those are used with plural reference.
We use this and these to describe something which is close to us in some way. This could be physically close but it could also be close in other ways, such as close in time. For example, if we are inside a house then we would generally use this to describe it, and that to describe another house (next door or across the street). If we talk about time then this generally means the next one ('this weekend', for example) and that generally means the previous one ('last weekend').
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Hosseinpour,
Yes, that is correct. We can use to 'had sth done' construction with the meaning of 'this happened to me' to describe unexpected events.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi cbenglish,
That's right, both 'an' and 'the' are possible here. Which one would be better depends on the context. Have you seen our Articles 1 and 2 pages? The explanations there might be useful for you, or if you have a specific context in which you'd say this, please explain it to us and we can suggest which article would be more appropriate in that context.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello cbenglish,
You are correct. No article is used in the first sentence because 'Hinduism' is an abstract noun and so no article is used. You could use the definite article if you want to distinguish between different versions of Hinduism:
In the second sentence the definite article is needed because you are specifying which of a number of religions you are describing. If you talk about religion as an abstract concept then no article is needed:
We do not use articles with the proper names of religions, so we say Islam, Christianity, Hunduism, Judaism, Buddhism and so on. However, if we specify a particular religion by using an adjective then we use the definite article:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Shahid,
If this refers to the name of a pub then The Foolish Stag would be correct. Names of pubs in the UK generally use the definite article (The Dog and Duck, The Garret, The Duke of York etc).
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello amrita_enakshi,
With countable nouns we use the plural form after 'any', and with uncountable nouns we use the singular. 'Infection' can be used as a countable or an uncountable noun and so both singular and plural are possible in this sentence.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Hosseinpour,
The meaning here is either 'I need to leave' or 'I need to start'. For example:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello cbenglish,
The most common option here is 'a but 'the' is also possible and I don't think there is any difference in meaning. The zero article is incorrect here.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello cbenglish,
While there are similar phrases with others than words than level, there is no real consistency in how articles are used with them. For example, we can say in the theoretical realm but not
in a theoretical realmin this kind of context. Thus, I would say that this is best treated as an expression to be memorised rather than the expression of a grammatical rule.Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello freemeu,
We have several options here:
Please posts questions once only. Posting the same question more than once only slows the process down as we have to delete the additional examples.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello freemeu,
There are many examples which follow the rule you quote but it is not completely consistent. For example, we say a patient is in hospital but we say a doctor is in (or at) the hospital. Similarly, we say that a criminal is in prison but we say a guard is in (or at) the prison.
The reason for the inconsistency is simply convention. This is how the language has developed through use over many years. It's unfortunate but English is hardly unique in having exceptions to some of its grammatical and lexical rules!
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello amol,
The indefinite article is used before non-specified countable nouns. Nouns describing relations are no different from any other nouns in this regard. Thus we would say 'an aunt' in your example if it is the first time we have mentioned her. Once we know which aunt is being referred to then we would say 'the aunt'.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello amol,
Articles are used before nouns so when an adjective is used without a noun no article is needed. This we would not use an article in your example.
It is possible to use the definite article before certain adjectives to describe a group: the rich, the poor, the Spanish, the English, the sick, the healthy, the old, the young etc.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi amol,
Both 'a' and 'the' are possible here and I'm afraid it's not possible to answer your question without knowing what the speaker means. Please see our Articles 1, Articles 2, and our indefinite and definite article pages for more information about what they mean and how they are used.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Sad,
Articles are a part of the noun phrase and are connected to the noun. The adjective does not change this. However, we do not use 'a' or 'an' with plural verbs, so that is a mistake in your sentence ('features' is a plural noun). You could say:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team