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#2 (permalink) Thu Mar 15, 2007 9:10 am Article 'A' with the expression "very little reaction" |
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| Quote: |
There was A ? very little reaction to Henry's speech, except from ..."
Do we need the article here ("a") ?
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Yes, lost_soul. |
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Pamela I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 14 Mar 2006 Posts: 1271 Location: RF
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#3 (permalink) Thu Mar 15, 2007 9:33 am Reaction |
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| lost_soul wrote: |
"There was A ? very little reaction to Henry's speech, except from ..."
Do we need the article here ("a") ?
thanks :)
P.S. I asked this question because I've seen many times that in some cases writers use "a" before "reaction" and in the others - dont. Could you elucidate this matter, please? |
Your question is so interesting and challenging to me, lost_soul! May I share my unsophisticated 'reaction' to it with you? :)
My feeling is if the article 'a' is applied here, then the sentence would suggest a positive sense: there was a reaction, though very little. On the other hand, if the 'a' is missing, a negative sense is given: almost no reaction to...
Just my two cents. :)
Haihao |
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Haihao I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 26 Oct 2006 Posts: 2471 Location: Japan
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#4 (permalink) Thu Mar 15, 2007 9:33 am Article 'A' with the expression "very little reaction" |
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Hi,
I think you have to make the distinction between ' a very little reaction', which would mean ' a very small/insignificant reaction' and 'very little reaction' which would mean 'not much reaction/hardly any reaction.'
Alan _________________ English as a Second Language You can read my ESL story Present Simple |
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Alan Co-founder

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Torsten Learning Coach

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#6 (permalink) Thu Mar 15, 2007 11:26 am Article 'A' with the expression "very little reaction" |
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. In the original--
| Quote: |
| "There was A ? very little reaction to Henry's speech, except from ..." |
-- the article seems very out of place. Even if we improbably posited a countable form here, I think the natural choice would be 'small'. Ms Google says:
22,700 English pages for "a small reaction" 775 English pages for "a little reaction" . _________________ Native English teacher at Mister Micawber's |
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Mister Micawber Language Coach
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