Articles without context.

English grammar questions, answered by Alan

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Fiodor
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Articles without context.

Post by Fiodor »

Hello! Could someone please help me a bit, as I just can’t get it by myself.
I prepare to take IELTS soon, but I still have some issues related to articles. I use various online-checkers to correct my writing and there are some mistakes that are still unclear. Here they are:

Certain individuals believe that physical appearance of a human being can provide enough information to guess personal cultural background or traits of this individual.

Do I really need to articles before
physical appearance → the physical appearance

and before

cultural background → the cultural background

Online correctors say yes, I should, but they are not particular; they are just random definitions. I mean, that physical appearance of some random person and, therefore, no article. The same goes for the second phrase. We know that this cultural background belongs to some person, but again, this is unclear.

Can you point please, where is the mistake in my logic?
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Alan
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Re: Articles without context.

Post by Alan »

I am afraid that a full explanation of the use of the English definite article, a highly complex topic, would be beyond the scope of this forum.

I can, however, tell you that you do indeed need the article in both of the places that you cite, since, essentially, you a relating a characteristic to a particular individual.
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