1008. We look at why you have to use "the" before some nouns and not others, and then we dive into the science behind why rhymes stick in our memory and how they can even influence our beliefs.
1008. We look at why you have to use "the" before some nouns and not others, and then we dive into the science behind why rhymes stick in our memory and how they can even influence our beliefs.
The "articles before nouns" segment was written by Neal Whitman, an independent writer and consultant specializing in language and grammar and a member of the Reynoldsburg, Ohio, school board. You can search for him by name on Facebook, or find him on his blog at literalminded.wordpress.com.
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Grammar Girl here. I’m Mignon Fogarty, your friendly guide to the English language. We talk about writing, history, rules, and other cool stuff. Today's topics are when to use the word "the" before nouns and why it's so much easier to remember things that rhyme.
And just a quick note before we start. We are getting close to the new school year, and I really, really want all you educators out there to know about my free LinkedIn Learning writing courses because I think they will make your life easier and help your students. Check your county or university library to see if you can get them free. Most of the time you can! Once you're there, search for "Grammar Girl," choose the course that pops up, and then click on my name to see all seven courses.
by Neal Whitman
Several listeners have written with questions on when to use the definite article “the,” the indefinite article “a,” or neither. For example, Tracy W. wrote, “Which is correct: ‘Thank you for taking time to review my application,’ or ‘Thank you for taking the time to review my application’?”
The use of articles is a tricky subject, with many exceptions and idiosyncrasies. We can’t cover all the cases today, but we can look at the basic rules and see how they apply to Tracy’s question.
We’ll start with some facts about nouns. First, some nouns in English can’t stand alone. For example, you can’t just say, “Cat crossed the road.” You have to say something like “A cat,” “The cat,” “Squiggly’s cat,” “Every cat,” or maybe “No cat.” “A,” “the,” the possessive noun “Squiggly’s,” “every,” and “no” are all examples of what linguists call determiners, and in English, some nouns have to have determiners.
So exactly which nouns need them? Countable, singular nouns, such as “cat,” must have a determiner.
Of course, if you’re writing about a cat named Cat, or someone named Catherine who’s called Cat for short, then “Cat crossed the road” works. This brings us to one kind of noun that doesn’t have to have a determiner: the proper noun. Proper nouns usually don’t have determiners; for example, you wouldn’t say “a Squiggly” or “every Squiggly,” except in the unusual situation where there’s more than one person named Squiggly.
Plurals can go without determiners, too. Although you can say “the cats,” you can also just say “cats,” if you don’t have any particular cats in mind.
Mass nouns—also called uncountable nouns—don’t need a determiner, either. Take the uncountable noun “information”: Although you can say, “I need your information,” or “I need the information,” you can also just say, “I need information,” if you don’t want to be specific.
Mass nouns usually allow any determiner, provided it’s not one that implies the noun is countable. So you can’t say something like “one information,” “two information,” or “many information.” In particular, you can’t say “an information,” because “a,” which is a form of the word “one,” implies that “information” is a countable noun.
Some nouns don’t fit nicely into these categories. Next, let’s consider the nouns that can go either way.
So what about that noun “time”? On the one hand, you can say, “Knock three times,” and “Have a great time,” so “time” can be a countable noun—when it’s referring to particular events. On the other hand, “time” also has a general sense, as in “Time is on my side,” and “Marty McFly traveled through time.” Used this way, “time” is a mass noun. It sounds strange to say, “A time is on my side,” and “Marty McFly traveled through one time.”
In “Thank you for taking time to review my application,” we’re using “time” as a mass noun, so we can omit the “the.” Nevertheless, we can still use a determiner, as long as the determiner doesn’t imply countability. That means it’s also OK to say “the time.” To choose between “time” and “the time,” we need to say more about the definite article.
“The” is called the definite article because you use it when you’re talking about something that is distinguished from other things (in other words, something “defined,” or “definite”). If you say, “The cat crossed the road,” this cat might be distinguished from other things because it’s the only cat in the neighborhood, or just because it’s the only cat mentioned earlier in the conversation.
So if you write, “Thank you for taking the time to review my application,” that indicates you’re talking about a definite amount of time: whatever amount of time it takes to review your application. If, however, you just say, “Thank you for taking time to review my application,” you’re thanking the readers for any amount of time they might take to review your application, even if it’s just a millisecond. For that reason, “Thank you for taking the time” seems like the better option.
The argument isn’t airtight, though. You could argue that it will be obvious to your audience that you are thanking them for taking a sufficient amount of time to review your application; that only perverse, hostile readers would understand it as thanking them for taking any old amount of time; and therefore, it’s safe to leave out the “the.” All I can say at this point is that both options are used in the real world, and both are grammatically and stylistically defensible.
Before we finish, let’s get to the rule for using the indefinite article “a.” It’s called the indefinite article because you use it when you’re talking about something that you’re not trying to distinguish from other things. If you say, “A cat crossed the road,” it could be any cat. If you say, “I wish a cat would cross the road,” there might not even be a cat.
In short, with countable singular nouns, you have to use a determiner. Use whatever determiner you need; in particular, use “the” if you’re distinguishing the noun from other things; use “a” if you’re not. With proper nouns, plural nouns, and mass nouns, determiners aren’t necessary, though you can still use them depending on the meaning you’re after; but remember not to use “a” or any other determiner that implies counting with a mass noun.
That segment was written by Neal Whitman, an independent writer and consultant specializing in language and grammar and a member of the Reynoldsburg, Ohio, school board. You can search for him by name on Facebook, or find him on his blog at literalminded.wordpress.com.
by Mignon Fogarty
Have you ever wondered why it's so much easier to remember things that rhyme? Like why do you still know the "I before E except after C" rule you probably learned in grade school? Or why when I say, "an apple a day," many of you know the next words are "keeps the doctor away"?
Well, it's all happening in our brains, and it turns out that our brains love rhymes. They're kind of like a mindless solitaire game for memory because they're just so easy for our brains to process. And that's for a few different reasons.
Different parts of our brains are activated for different activities, and when you're reading a rhyme, it not only activates the part of your brain normally involved in reading, it also activates the part of your brain involved in processing speech — you're essentially imagining what the words sound like, which is technically called "acoustic encoding" — and that makes remembering the rhyme easier.
And as an aside, it turns out we do the same thing when we're reading dialogue. For example, a study found that a sentence like "Squiggly said, 'I feel like I'll never put the confetti incident behind me,'" created a more vivid reading experience than a sentence like "Squiggly said he feels like he'll never put the confetti incident behind him."
Also, the way information is stored in the brain, and the way it's pulled back out, make it easier for us to remember words that are related in some way, whether that's words that sound similar like rhymes, or words that have related meanings or are connected in some other way.
For example, a book called "Memory in Oral Traditions" by David C. Rubin describes students who were asked to name body parts off the top of their head, and they reliably named things together that you'd think of as related. For example, they'd say, "hand" and then "finger," "eyes," "ears," and then "mouth" and "nose." And if you give students a list of words to remember that are just random, they'll try to impose some kind of structure on the list to help themselves remember.
So words exist in our brains in ways that connect them to other related words, and it's easier for us to remember words that are closely related than words that don't have much to do with each other. It limits the universe of words you have to consider when thinking about what comes next. For example, if I say, "The mouse picked up his [blank]," your brain is getting ready for any noun. But if you know the first part is the beginning of a rhyme, your brain is already homing in on the much smaller set of possible nouns like "house" and "spouse." The connected sounds of rhymes help us tap into these smaller word networks, which makes remembering things easier.
Here's an example: "September" and "November" are connected in our brains both because they're months and because they rhyme, so when I say, "Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November," and then you're trying to remember it again tomorrow — if you can remember the first line, you're going to have a pretty easy time remembering that the last line ends with "November" because of the way those two words are connected and rhyme. In fact, I've heard people say that the whole rhyme doesn't work very well for them because they can never remember the middle part with "April" and "June," which, you know, don't rhyme. They have trouble with the non-rhyming part, but not the rhyming part.
Researchers also think that because we're awash in rhymes from the time we're small — starting with nursery rhymes and children's songs — we build up a vast network of words that we know rhyme. So when someone tells you for the first time "Leaves of three, let them be" to help you identify poison ivy, you already know that "three" and "be" rhyme because you've probably heard them rhyme before, and we're also more likely to remember things that are familiar.
Another thing that blew my mind as I was reading about rhymes is that studies have shown that we are actually more likely to believe something is true … if it rhymes! In fact, it's such a well-known cognitive bias that it has a name: the rhyme-as-reason effect. Researchers have found, for example, that if you hear "woes unite foes" instead of "woes unite enemies," you are more likely to believe that troubles really do bring foes together.
There's a whole class of pithy words of wisdom called "rhyming aphorisms," and you probably know at least some of them (and maybe believe them) if you grew up in the United States because the rhymes make them both memorable and convincing: Besides "an apple a day," we have "your health is your wealth," "fake it till you make it," "when the cat's away, the mice will play," "birds of a feather flock together," and so on.
Some people even believe the rhyme-as-reason effect may have played a role in O.J. Simpson getting a not-guilty verdict in his 1995 trial because of the memorable — and apparently extra-convincing — rhyme his lawyer Johnnie Cochran used calling to mind a bloody glove from the murder scene: "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit."
Advertisers definitely take advantage of this effect to make us more likely to believe their sales pitches and buy their products. Think of "Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh, what a relief it is," and "Nationwide is on your side."
The good news is that researchers have also found that once you're aware of the rhyme-as-reason effect, you aren't as susceptible to it, so just by listening to this podcast, you've already become more resilient. And they also suggest restating a phrase without the rhyme if you want to evaluate it on its merits instead of being influenced by the rhyme. Is it really true that if I eat an apple every day, I'll be less likely to need to go to the doctor? Probably not, at least not if that's the only fruit or vegetable you eat! Maybe an apple isn't meant to be taken literally, and it's a stand-in for a good diet, but once you start really thinking about it, the original message doesn't hold up.
But why do we think rhymes are more truthful in the first place? Well, one reason is that we find them aesthetically pleasing — beautiful — and researchers have found that when we like something, it's also easier for our brains to process, and again, our brains seem to like things that are easy. It's like they say, "Yes, that was easy to understand, so it must be true."
So if you want people to remember something and believe it's true, state it as a rhyme. It worked for "I before E, except after C, and when sounding like A as in 'neighbor' and 'weigh." But keep it short. Research from the 1980s also shows that the ability to remember a spoken rhyme verbatim starts to decline after about 50 words.
Finally, I have a familect story.
"Hey, Grammar Girl, this is Jessica from Hampton, Virginia. I'm sort of a recent listener in that I just came back to listening to your podcast a few days ago. But I used to listen years ago when I was 14. I'm 27 now. My dad found your podcast for me because I loved to write back then, and it's really been interesting how listening to you has really brought back memories of how I used to love to write.
But I was calling in because I want to share a familect. I actually have two. My Parents have all of my life referred to the TV remote as the "binker." And that came from when my mother was little, the first people she ever knew to have a remote was the kind of remote that, you know, when you click the buttons, the buttons light up as soon as you call it the blinker, so she was a little girl, and she didn't understand what they were saying. She thought they called it the "binker," and that's what she thought it was called for a really long time. So even as an adult now, she still sometimes says "binker" instead of "remote." So when I was growing up, I picked up on that too, more to the point now, where even my husband says it.
And then another familect that came up in recent years. A few years ago when I was at my parents house, I asked my mom if she had already opened the lime, and I didn't really think about what I was saying, but she looked at me and said, "Open lime?" And I was like, you know, if you already have a lime in the fridge that you've cut open, I just want a wedge of lime for a drink, and I'm not going to cut open another lime if you already have one that you've cut into, and we laughed about that, but then it actually became a thing that we stay over and over again. Like it's been years and my husband says it, both of my parents say it. We'll use it as a verb and we'll use it as an adjective. So we'll say, "Hey, is there an open onion in the fridge?"
Or we'll say, "Hey, do you want me to open this pineapple? I think it's ripe and ready to eat."
So that was just two familects that I wanted to share with you. I really enjoyed your show, and I'm so glad I came back to listen again.
Thank you so much, Jessica. Yup, I'm still here, and I love hearing about people coming back to the show. "Binker" is fun, and the concept of opening a lime is downright useful.
If you have a familect story to share, I'd love to hear it, and now you can send me a voice memo on WhatsApp, which generally makes the audio sound better than the old voicemail line, and is also easier for people who are outside the United States. So non-US people, now is your time! The link is in the show notes, and it occurred to me that some of you might not know how to find the show notes. They're in different places in different apps, but in Apple Podcasts after you click on the episode, just scroll down; and in Spotify after you click on the episode, then click "see more." That's where we put all the important links for each episode. So check it out, and send me your familect story.
Finally, if you're an educator, check out my free LinkedIn Learning courses at your county or university library.
Grammar Girl is a Quick and Dirty Tips podcast. Thanks to Holly Hutchings in digital operations, Davina Tomlin in marketing; Morgan Christianson in advertising, Dan Fireabend in audio, and Brannan Goetschius, director of podcasts; who just just started re-learning the saxophone … much to the frustration of his downstairs neighbors.
And I'm Mignon Fogarty. That's all. Thanks for listening.
The following references for the "rhymes" segment did not appear in the audio but are included here for completeness.
Filkuková, Petra & Hroar Klempe, Sven (2013, July 10). "Rhyme as Reason in Commercial and Social Advertising." Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 54(5), 423-431. doi:10.1111/sjop.12069. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/sjop.12069 (accessed August 3, 2024)
Krockow, Eva M. (2023, December 27). "People Judge Poetic Language as More Truthful." Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/stretching-theory/202311/people-judge-poetic-language-as-more-truthful (accessed August 3, 2024)
McGlone, Matthew S, et al. (2000, September). "Birds of a Feather Flock Conjointly (?): Rhyme as Reason in Aphorisms." Psychological Science, 11(5), 424-428. doi:10.1111/1467-9280.00282. (accessed August 3, 2024)
Murphy Paul, Annie. (2013, September 17). "Need to Remember Something? Make it Rhyme." TIME. https://ideas.time.com/2013/09/17/need-to-remember-something-make-it-rhyme/ (accessed August 3, 2024)
Petkov, Christopher I & Belin, Pascal (2013, February 18). "Silent Reading: Does the Brain 'Hear' Both Speech and Voices?" Current Biology. 23(4), R155-R156. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982213000055 (accessed August 3, 2024)
Rubin, David C. (1995) "Memory in Oral Traditions: The Cognitive Psychology of Epic, Ballads, and Counting-out Rhymes." Oxford University Press. https://books.google.com/books?id=yq5A7djClegC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false (accessed August 3, 2024)
"Time for a rhyme." (2020, May 6). New Scientist. https://www.newscientist.com/lastword/mg24632811-700-time-for-a-rhyme/ (accessed August 3, 2024)
Trinh, Nhi. (2019, November 26). "Rhymes and Reasons, why Poetry is Treason." CogBlog – A Cognitive Psychology Blog. https://web.colby.edu/cogblog/2019/11/26/rhymes-and-reasons-why-poetry-is-treason/ (accessed August 3, 2024)
(2023). "The Influence of Rhyming on Memory Recall in Children." Referred Journal of Northern Europe Academy for Studies & Research 22, 120. https://openurl.ebsco.com/EPDB%3Agcd%3A10%3A14634186/detailv2?bquery=IS%202596-7517%20AND%20IP%2022%20AND%20DT%202023&page=1&sid=ebsco:ocu:record (accessed August 3, 2024)