Comment by abraxas

2 hours 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"?

3 comments

abraxas

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danadam  24 minutes ago

To me, as non-native, it seems that it may be because the idea [1] of "cases" was already introduced. So, at the start of a conversation you would say:

- The rules of a/the are simple.

- Not really, if you think so, then you haven't considered _all cases_. There's this exception and there's that exception. [...]

but:

- The rules of a/the are simple.

- Not really. There's this exception and there's that exception. [...] If you think the rules are simple, then you haven't considered _all the cases_.

[1] but take what I write with a big grain of salt, I can't explain why I wrote "the idea" or "the start" and I'm not 100% sure if that's correct :)

hackyhacky  1 hour 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.