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patricia
can we put a "a" in front of "knowledge?"
a knowledge of English
a wide knowledge of English
the knowledge of English
knowledge of English
which of them are correct and which are wrong? thank you!
Feb 29, 2012 10:07 AM
Answers · 4
1
No, it is a non-countable noun when used alone, but the examples you quote are correct.
February 29, 2012
A knowledge of English. << This is morphologically COUNTABLE. Althought 2 knowledges of English is quite rarely heard. That means you take your expertise of something as a whole, similar to a certificate of English, a diploma of Chinese Literature, manifesting your level of professionalism in a sense. A "concept".
And when you mean to mean "a piece of knowledge" (yes, you could say that, like "a piece of information), it should consist of countless trivial terms, grammar rule 1, grammar rule 2, knowing how to spell the word "apple", etc. In this case, which is the most commonly used, it is then UNcountable.
Other than that, if you see "a knowlege" used unlike what I explained about in the first paragraph, but close to the "trivial" pieces one, that means "a kind of knowledge". Like when you say "a water", that means some specific kind of water probably in the lab, or "a people" referring to the people of the same nationality.
February 29, 2012
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patricia
Language Skills
Chinese (Mandarin), Chinese (Other), English, Japanese
Learning Language
English, Japanese
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