Ivan
Again about articles ((
I am reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J. K. Rowling and in the chapter three (THE LETTERS FROM NO ONE) I see such paragraphs:
.....
Next morning at breakfast, everyone was rather quiet. Dudley was in shock. He’d screamed, whacked his father with his Smelting stick, been sick on purpose, kicked his mother, and thrown his tortoise through the greenhouse roof, and he still didn’t have his room back. Harry was thinking about this time yesterday and bitterly wishing he’d opened the letter in the hall. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia kept looking at each other darkly.
.....
.....
The repaired alarm clock rang at six o’clock the next morning. Harry turned it off quickly and dressed silently. He mustn’t wake the Dursleys. He stole downstairs without turning on any of the lights.
.....
In the first case - "Next morning at breakfast..." - without "THE" before "morning"
In the second case - "...at six o’clock the next morning..." - with "THE" before "morning"
Why?
2019年8月22日 08:09
回答 · 3
1
1. It would be wrong to use 'the' here. We would not normally say 'at the breakfast'. This is because 'at breakfast' is a fixed adverbial phrase referring to the occasion/time of day in your schedule, just as 'in bed' or 'at work' are adverbial phrases referring to everyday states in your schedule.
We would only use a definite article with 'breakfast' if you need to refer to a specific one or to distinguish between two particular meals. For example, "Some of the meals in the hotel were OK. The breakfast on the first day was fine, but the breakfast on the second day was awful".
In other situations, there is no need for an article with meals. Here are some typical sentences:
"Have you had breakfast?"
"What time is lunch?"
"What should we have for supper?"
"Let's go out for dinner".
2. We use 'the' because it's a specific morning. We do sometimes say 'next morning' without an article, but it is better to include it.
2019年8月22日
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