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Author Topic: Kindly look at this sentence  (Read 9021 times)

Offline mallu

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Kindly look at this sentence
« 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?
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Offline Jeff L.

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Re: Kindly look at this sentence
« Reply #1 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. :)
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Offline Daniel

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Re: Kindly look at this sentence
« Reply #2 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.
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Offline mallu

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Re: Kindly look at this sentence
« Reply #3 on: September 15, 2014, 11:14:12 PM »
Could you tell me why?djr
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Offline Daniel

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Re: Kindly look at this sentence
« Reply #4 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
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