A Grammar of the English Tongue - ESL Teachers Board

A Grammar of the English Tongue 21An or a can only be joined with a singular: the correspondent plural is thenoun without an article, as, I want a pen, I want pens; or with thepronominal adjective some, as, I want some pens.THE.The has a particular and definite signification.The fruit Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste Brought death into theworld. Milton.That is, that particular fruit, and this world in which we live. So, He givethfodder for the cattle, and green herbs for the use of man; that is, for thosebeings that are cattle, and his use that is man.The is used in both numbers.I am as free as Nature first made man, Ere the base laws of servitude began,When wild in woods the noble savage ran. Dryden.Many words are used without articles; as1. Proper names, as John, Alexander, Longinus, Aristarchus, Jerusalem,Athens, Rome, London. GOD is used as a proper name.2. Abstract names, as blackness, witch-craft, virtue, vice, beauty, ugliness,love, hatred, anger, good-nature, kindness.3. Words in which nothing but the mere being of any thing is implied: Thisis not beer, but water; this is not brass, but steel.* * * * *Of NOUNS SUBSTANTIVE.