In the English language, you have been learning about the nouns, pronouns, articles, determiners and all other various conceptual things which make the sentence formation easy and quick.
In today’s session, we would be learning about zero articles. Yes, you might be wondering as to what is zero article.
What is a Zero Article?
The term zero article refers to an occasion while writing or speaking when a noun or a noun phrase is not preceded by an article i.e a, an, the. You can also refer to the zero article as zero determiners.
The Zero Article is with a singular countable noun when we address somebody. We do not use articles with some time words and phrases, such as “at night,” “at midnight,” “tomorrow,” “today” and “yesterday.” With abstract nouns such as: beauty, truth, etc.
| Note: Linguistics have found that in the various regional variety of English such as New English, omitting the articles (a, an, the) is often expressed as non-specific. |
Examples of Zero Article in Sentences
Now let’s see some of the examples and rules of Zero Article to understand it in a better way. In the given examples, you won’t see any article being used before the italicized nouns.
- Your mother’s name is Rose. I gave her a rose on Mother’s Day.
- You can experience that every mile is two in winter.
- It was amazing to find that this plant grows in sandy soil and on the edges of swamps.
- David Rockefeller was the only authorized person to hold the position of director of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Zero Article Rules in English
If we see, generally, no article is used with the proper noun, a mass noun. This is because in such cases there is no reference or the reference is indefinite. You can also observe that in the plural count noun also the reference is indefinite. Moreover, you won’t find any article being used when you are referring to the means of transport or expressing a common expression of time and place.
1. Use of Zero Article in American & British English
Generally, in American and British English, no article is used before some words such as school. College, class, prison, camp. These words are used to show their institutional sense which does not require the use of articles (a, an, the). Let us see some examples, to understand it in a better way.
- All the school students need to start their work in the fall.
- Colleges would be helping the students by providing them opportunities to learn and meet new people.
However, it would be clear to you by now that some of the nouns are used with definite articles in American English but they are not used in British English.
- When you were in the hospital, I often wished that there would be fewer hours in a day.
- When Queen Elizabeth was in hospital, she was mostly visited by her family.
In the above two sentences, you can see that the first one is written in American English whereas the second one is written in British English. Therefore the word ‘hospital’ does not require any article to be used.
2. Zero Articles With Plural Count Nouns and Mass Nouns
Many experts have stated that the most frequent type of generic statement that can be expressed by the zero articles generally happens with plural count nouns or with the mass nouns.
Basically, the count nouns are those words that can form a plural form such as a dog, or cat. You can also observe that the count nouns in their plural form are used without any article (a, an, the). The same can be true when the noun is used in the plural form but it is of indefinite number. Let’s check out the examples to understand it in a better way.
- Dogs love to eat the bone and play with it.
- The boy loves to play the piano every evening.
In the case of Mass nouns, you need to understand that they cannot be counted such as air, sadness, happiness. Mass nouns also include words that cannot be usually counted such as water or meat. Let’s see some of the examples to understand it in a better way.
- Clean and fresh air is important for a healthy environment.
- The man was able to overcome his sadness when he could get back his lost family.
Download the following image to quickly revise all what we have learned in this blog post.
Conclusion:
In this blog, you could understand the concept of Zero Article and all the grammar rules that come with it. This basic thing will help you in understanding why the articles (a, an, the) are used and sometimes not used. Englishbix is an educational website that will help you in resolving all your doubts and issues related to English grammar. So Stay Tuned For More Updates.
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