"Constant war ... has caused" vs. "The constant ... war has caused"

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shiqangpan
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"Constant war ... has caused" vs. "The constant ... war has caused"

Post by shiqangpan »

According to Cambridge Dictionary https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dic ... nglish/war the noun "war" can be either uncountable or countable.

From Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_T ... ies_(1984)
Constant war between the Autobots and the Decepticons on Cybertron has caused great hardship.
Should I consider "war" there an uncountable or countable noun?

Is it more natural to put an extra the at its beginning?
The constant war ... has caused great hardship.
patron
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Re: "Constant war ... has caused" vs. "The constant ... war has caused"

Post by patron »

When you are referring to a specific war then you use the definite article the

e.g The war between A and B caused much suffering.= one war that took place between A and B.

Here war is countable (= one war).

if you talk about war in general (throughout history) then you don't use the or a/an(zero article).

e.g War is very frightening.

Here war is uncountable because it describes the condition or state of war= war in general.

The two sentences you gave were not good examples and the meaning the author wanted could perhaps only be conveyed by using the
shiqangpan
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Re: "Constant war ... has caused" vs. "The constant ... war has caused"

Post by shiqangpan »

Thank you. World War II should be counted as one war, right?
patron
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Re: "Constant war ... has caused" vs. "The constant ... war has caused"

Post by patron »

yes,, THAT IS CORRECT
ghellman
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Re: "Constant war ... has caused" vs. "The constant ... war has caused"

Post by ghellman »

The author may have chosen to suppress the clause "the state of . . ." before the modified noun "constant war' [which is sad to contemplate], and hoped that readers would restore it.

The context may have been an extended relationship between the belligerents, who also engaged in intermittent conflict, possibly more acceptable[also sad to contemplate].
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Hijaja
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Re: "Constant war ... has caused" vs. "The constant ... war has caused"

Post by Hijaja »

shiqangpan wrote: Sun Aug 16, 2020 3:35 am Thank you. World War II should be counted as one war, right?
Yes, of course it is one war and there can be no other interpretations in general. Yes, and this war should be considered in more detail.
But few scientists and experts have conducted in-depth research on the First World War https://supremestudy.com/essay-examples/world-war-1/ .And in vain, given that it was a historical occurrence that will always raise numerous concerns about it.
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