Thursday, June 14, 2012

articles - Is it necessary to use "the" multiple times?



It seems that the question has eventually become a series of questions....







An example goes as:




The 1st and (the) 2nd paragraphs of the article are extremely long.




Another example:




What are the situation, (the) task and (the) result of your story?





Is it necessary to use the in ()?


Answer



Generally, repeating the word "the" before items in a list is not necessary. Think of "the" as being distributed across all the elements.



However, there are some exceptions.




The first paragraph, which is the funniest paragraph of the article, and the second paragraph are extremely long.





Here, the "the" is necessary because you've entered and exited a dependent clause, which the "the" cannot distribute across.



Generally, if it might be confusing to a reader or listener, include the word "the". Similarly, if it would be distracting, omit it.


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