Do I need any determiners in the sentence below in general statement?   Strong winds destroy homes.   Is it ok to say in English in specific situation?   The strong wind destroyed the homes in North Carolina.   I mean mostly the determiners in this sentence.  These are specific questions I am asking about. I couldn't find wider explanation of zero determiner and when it applies vs. prulars and singulars.
4654
I can’t for the life of me figure out where to use a and where to use the — and where there is no article at all. Is there a simple rule of thumb to memorize?   The standard rule you always hear:     “If a person knows which item you are talking about then use "the"   . . . doesn’t clear things up for me, as I have no idea whether or not they know.
106788
If my understanding is correct, the  possessive personal pronouns (which are mine, thine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, and theirs) are used in place of nouns, whereas the possessive determiners (which are my, thy, your, his, her, its, our, and their) are used as adjectives.  If this is the case, then why is example 1 below correct, as opposed to example 2?   Whose book is this? It is mine.   Whose book is this? It is *my.
71988
I often hear people saying what kind of [singular noun] rather than what kind of a [singular noun].  Are we not supposed to use an article (a) before noun?
58789
Which of the following sentences contains the grammatically correct bolded section:  "He affected me and my friend's day." or "He affected my and my friend's day."  It seems clear to me that the first sentence clearly sounds the best, but I was always told that you should be able to isolate the sentence to just one of the objects, i.e. remove my friend from the sentence, and when I do that, only the second sentence makes sense.  What is the correct grammar to use here?
99689
After reading , I would refrain from asking this question, but the husband of a colleague of mine (English professor, native speaker of British English) stated against it, so I am looking for further enlightenment.  He advocates some should be solely used to refer to plural forms. Thus,     some non-existent towns   is perfectly correct, but     some non-existent town   should be replaced by      a non-existent town   Is that true?
10078
In my English classes, I was taught that never should not be used with past forms, only with present perfect forms; this is also what I read in a grammar book I bought some years ago. (I bought the book in the USA; I guess the book is about American English grammar, but I don't have any reason to believe there is any difference between American, and British English in this case.)  Is it correct to use never with the past tense?     I never said that.        I have never said that.
9787
I have been taught that it's grammatically proper to use the before countries like "Sudan and Yemen" but I was never given a reason (if there exists any, of course) when I asked why, except for "it is one of those ambiguous parts of English language that we &ndash; as non-native speakers &ndash; should just accept without trying to look for a reason". Now, I'd like to know if there is any answer to this "why" or I should keep on believing that there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to questions like these.
22718
My classmate wrote a text about zoos in general, and the word &quot;zoos&quot; in plural form is mentioned many times in it. Later in the text he uses singular form &quot;zoo&quot; two times with indefinite articles, and both times he still refers to an abstract zoo, not to specific one. He wrote:  The place where animals can obtain shelter is a zoo. You can take the kids to a zoo.  I'm having trouble in figuring out whether it is correct or not. I think that he should have used a definite article the second time, because he already mentioned a singular abstract zoo, but he argues that he refers to &quot;two different singular abstract zoos&quot;. So which article should be used in a second sentence?
12933
Which of the following is a correct sentence:   Does anyone know where's Linda?  Does anyone know where Linda is?    Does anyone know why and how to use above usage if #2 is correct. Also please let me know this kind of specific structures.
45696
"He was watching the television when I called on him."  When I said this sentence to one of my friends  (an English teacher)  he corrected me saying that the definite article (the) should be omitted. Still, I can't understand why. ? Actually similar  question has been asked earlier but the answers were so ambiguous. So I put complete sentence.
106855
New York is a great place to live. New York is a great place to live in.  I've seen the former usage a lot and I've started wondering what the grammar aspects of it are. The main question I'm asking involves the grammar when the preposition in the end of the sentence is deleted. Is it equally formal or correct to omit it? What are the grammar properties of this? Some more examples of similar usage:  This organisation is a great place to work. This is a great place to stay/sit/study/travel/go.  Just to show that 'live' isn't special in this case. Note: I'd posted the same question  before, but the answers were not satisfying enough (the answers there did not seem to provide the precise grammar aspects of this, those that could be in a serious grammar book), so I'm posting this here to get some more views on the question. I hope it is acceptable.
11104
That car is way better than any car any of us have/has ever driven.      None of us know/knows which direction Ron's house is (in).    I have two questions here.   In both the cases, are we to use the singular verb, or the plural? In the end of the second sentence, is using the preposition where it's been used, necessary? Would it be okay if it had no prepositions in it?
100595
I've been writing in English for many years, but there are certain recurring issues that come up in my writing, which I can't seem to resolve permanently. Primarily I have a problem with punctuation. In my native language, commas are very commonly used. One would place a comma to separate any portion of the sentence that serves a specific grammatical role. At least, this is the case according to the rules I was taught in school. I can see when I write in English that there are extraneous commas, but I can't always figure out which ones, and why. When dependent clauses require commas, when do they allow them, and when are they definitely incorrect?
68553
In English, there are at least two ways to express negation, for example: — I don't have money — I have no money  or — No objects were found — Objects were not found  or — No restrictions are applied — Restrictions are not applied  Questions:   What is the difference between these two forms? Is it only the matter of style or there is more significant differences in the meaning of the sentences? When should we use the first one form and when the second? Do these two forms stress a difference between British and US English?
113084
I was doing 'articles' exercise on the web. I found this sentence,     Ben has a terrible headache.   Why 'a' is used here. The terrible headache is not a countable noun. Thus, 'a' should not be used here. I feel the correct sentence is "Ben has terrible headache." However, the correct answer is the following: "Ben has a terrible headache."  I am confused. Please do help me.   Can I say, "I had headache."?
70657
Sentence 1: I don’t know if it won't rain tomorrow.  Sentnece 2: I don’t know whether it won't rain tomorrow.  Which sentence sound natural to you? Is there a rule that we should use "if" rather than "whether" when the object clause is negative?  Thank you very much!
104557
what is difference between the two following sentences? And which one is grammatical?  1- If there is a car in the garden, it will be towed away.  2- If there is any  car in the garden, it will be towed away.  Please note that I am making a general statement and thinking of just one car.