Is a “the” always necessary?

[Dustin Stopher]

Hi everyone! I had a recent note on a review I wrote, and wanted some feedback on it. The sentence I wrote was something like:

“The stance was in opposition to common rhetoric of the virus.”

The note said that the sentence was incorrect, and should read:

“The stance was in opposition to THE common rhetoric of the virus.”

While I acknowledge the second sounds better, is the first incorrect? To me, adding a “the” makes the common rhetoric a singular entity, where all parties are saying generally the same thing about the virus. Omitting it makes the rhetoric feel more open, as in there may be several common opinions that do not necessarily agree. Is the “the” necessary? I await your thoughts!

[Elles7ng+]

Hi there!

I don't know if this could actually help you to solve the doubt you have, but for me, who also speaks Spanish, the right way when I translate the sentence to Spanish is by adding the "the" to it. This is because in Spanish the lack of an article before a singular noun is a grammar mistake, cuz it loses the "belonging" sense. Therefore "I assume" in this particular case that's what happens.

I'm sorry for not giving you a further (or exactly right) explanation about why this, but I'm still learning to improve my grammar in both languages (and these posts help me a lot).

I hope you get the actual explanation of this and I hope to learn from it too.

Wish you the best!

[Dustin Stopher]

Hi there!

I don't know if this could actually help you to solve the doubt you have, but for me, who also speaks Spanish, the right way when I translate the sentence to Spanish is by adding the "the" to it. This is because in Spanish the lack of an article before a singular noun is a grammar mistake, cuz it loses the "belonging" sense. Therefore "I assume" in this particular case that's what happens.

I'm sorry for not giving you a further (or exactly right) explanation about why this, but I'm still learning to improve my grammar in both languages (and these posts help me a lot).

I hope you get the actual explanation of this and I hope to learn from it too.

Wish you the best!

Hey!

My only understanding of Spanish is what I took in high school, but from what I remember, I do feel like the “the” would be there from a translation standpoint. You’re absolutely right. I do wonder about the grammatical explanation in English though.

Nevertheless, I appreciate your response and the international perspective. I hadn’t thought of that.

Thanks for the insight!

[Neshboy Aburi]

Hi everyone! I had a recent note on a review I wrote, and wanted some feedback on it. The sentence I wrote was something like:

“The stance was in opposition to common rhetoric of the virus.”

The note said that the sentence was incorrect, and should read:

“The stance was in opposition to THE common rhetoric of the virus.”

While I acknowledge the second sounds better, is the first incorrect? To me, adding a “the” makes the common rhetoric a singular entity, where all parties are saying generally the same thing about the virus. Omitting it makes the rhetoric feel more open, as in there may be several common opinions that do not necessarily agree. Is the “the” necessary? I await your thoughts!

I also don't know the correct way about this and to me both sentence seem to be correct. The second sentence may sound better but I agree with you that it limits the scope of the subject to that particular incident. I mean it implies that the common rhetoric of the virus is a one time event.

[Charlize Venter]

Hi everyone! I had a recent note on a review I wrote, and wanted some feedback on it. The sentence I wrote was something like:

“The stance was in opposition to common rhetoric of the virus.”

The note said that the sentence was incorrect, and should read:

“The stance was in opposition to THE common rhetoric of the virus.”

While I acknowledge the second sounds better, is the first incorrect? To me, adding a “the” makes the common rhetoric a singular entity, where all parties are saying generally the same thing about the virus. Omitting it makes the rhetoric feel more open, as in there may be several common opinions that do not necessarily agree. Is the “the” necessary? I await your thoughts!

In this instance, the first would be considered grammatically incorrect. The subject is necessary.
In spoken English and informal writing one can still get away with it, but considering the quality review expected by OnlineBookClub, we cannot get away with it here.

[Samuel Mamo]

I think, in the context "the common rehetoric " is a known rehetoric , so we need to put "the" before it.