Linguist Forum

Languages => Language-specific analysis => English => Topic started by: mallu on September 15, 2014, 09:03:17 AM

Title: Kindly look at this sentence
Post by: mallu on September 15, 2014, 09:03:17 AM

1)She has problem getting up early
2)She has  a problem getting up early
Which among these sentence is right?My bet is the first.Could someone kindly tell me?

Title: Re: Kindly look at this sentence
Post by: Jeff L. on September 15, 2014, 10:48:49 AM

With "problem" in the singular, you need the article/determiner; "she has a problem getting up early" is correct. (In the plural, then there's no article: "she has problems getting up early".) It's presumably behaving as a count noun, rather than a mass noun. :)

Title: Re: Kindly look at this sentence
Post by: Daniel on September 15, 2014, 03:48:01 PM

PhantomSoul's post is correct.

Additionally, if there is a mass noun like 'trouble', it does not require an article:
She has trouble getting up early.

Title: Re: Kindly look at this sentence
Post by: mallu on September 15, 2014, 11:14:12 PM

Could you tell me why?djr

Title: Re: Kindly look at this sentence
Post by: Daniel on September 16, 2014, 12:02:54 AM

Mass nouns: trouble, happiness, furniture, sand, water
Count nouns: problem(s), feeling(s), table(s), beach(es), drink(s)

Mass nouns do not require an article, but count nouns do:

A cat / *A water
(Except meaning "a bottle of water")

vs

Water / *Cat