Comment by abraxas

2 hours ago

Here I have no idea why in the last sentence you wrote "all the cases" even though cases is already plural. This is not covered by any of the rules people have been posting in this thread. I'm the GP who started the article usage discussion here.

4 comments

abraxas

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hackyhacky  2 hours ago

I have no idea why I shouldn't write "all the cases". What are you trying to say?

  • abraxas  1 hour ago

    The word "cases" is already plural. Why does it need an article in front of it? It's one of the usages that trip me up. Why isn't it just "all cases"?

    • hackyhacky  13 minutes ago

      We frequently use definite articles with plurals. It simply identifies a bounded or known set.

      * I understand all languages. -- unbounded set, applies to every language, everywhere

      * I understand all the languages. -- bounded set, applies to a known set of languages, i.e. specifically those languages which are supported by a particular program

      To be fair, I think "all cases" in this situation is also acceptable.