Monday, May 16, 2016

grammaticality - "You're missing the posts only available to members" — should there be a "the" in there?




Consider this sentence:




You're missing posts only available to members.




I think it should actually be





You're missing the posts available only to members




or at least




You're missing the posts only available to members




The second sounds the best to me, but friends say the first one sounds best.

This is going to go on a website for the people to see. I do not know how to justify it, but I think there should be a the before posts. Does taking it out make it okay? If so, can someone please explain?


Answer



Although the modifier "only available to members" makes "posts" more specific and thus would seem to require the definite Article, it still hasn't made the Noun completely specific.



You can say "posts" is halfway from being general to being specific.



This is often confusing. Consider this other "middle" example. This is correct:




Ex. I like people who have initiative. (not all people, but still

general)




In your example, not adding an article is suitable because the Noun "posts" is specific but still general.



The alternative you're thinking of should be something like:




Ex. I want to read THE posts that WERE only available to members.




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