The Mystery of the Vanishing THE!

The Mystery of the Vanishing THE!

     I love a great mystery. I'm a big fan of Alfred Hitchcock films and The Three Investigators books, for example. 


But good writing and editing nearly always should be free of such mysteries. Your message should be easy to understand, with no guesswork needed on the part of the reader.


That's why I'm on the trail in search of the word the, which mysteriously has disappeared from far too many poorly constructed sentences and phrases.


Why has it vanished from its rightful place in such instances? I fear it's largely a result of what I have dubbed Parrot's Disease, that habit of blindly copying and following what we see/read without questioning whether what we're parroting is actually correct. This reminder is in order:





PARROT'S DISEASE:   Be skeptical and look things up to be sure! Do not trust myths and rumors or repeat things you have seen or heard, no matter how common. This is how such atrocious writing as the examples cited becomes so common. Be uncommon and be sure something you write is correct. Don't just parrot what you read and hear!

Here are some examples in which the is missing but absolutely belongs. For those who disagree, I submit again that just because you have seen it that way doesn't make it correct, no matter how many times writers wrongly omit it.

Following is ...
Trouble is ...
Problem is ... 
Chances are ...

Terms of the deal ...

They all need The at the beginning!

1) It's "The following is ..." as in the following items that I am about to mention: The following is a list of requirements for the job.

2) It should be, of course, "The trouble is that people are horrible writers and omit the first word." Hitchcock correctly named      his film "The Trouble With Harry." Just as it would have been dopey to name it just "Trouble With Harry," starting a sentence with "Trouble is .." is equally dopey.

3) When was the last time you indignantly said, "Hey, what's problem?" How about never? Of course it should be "...what's the problem?"

4) Does anyone go around saying, "What are chances that this sentence contains no errors?" Still fewer would reply, "Well, chances of that are 50%." In both cases, the would go in front of chances: "What are the chances that ..." and "the chances of that are 50% ..."

Perhaps this will get the point across more effectively: You very likely have seen the stereotypical depiction of a foreigner, usually a     Russian, in films or TV shows. What becomes painfully obvious is the glaring lack of articles like the in the actor's broken English.

"Is good, no? Get bottle from store, drink till we drop. Like store that sells bottle at cheap price. Favorite liquor is bottle of vodka. Reminds of home, when would drink from bottle start to finish! What are chances we get such blessing here in America? Problem is costs too much. Trouble is I don't make enough money!"

You might find that hilarious, but I'm hoping you agree such wording has no place in good writing and editing. Those earlier examples cited that need the are nearly as bad. Let's strive for a lot better than such broken English.

It all goes back to the proper use of articles. Again, let's turn 

to our friend,    Merriam Webster:

¹ar·ti·cle

noun \ˈär-ti-kəl\

Definition of ARTICLE

: any of a small set of words or affixes (as a, an, and the) used with nouns to limit or give definiteness to the application 

If you are interested in more about articles (a, an, the) and how to use them properly, check out these useful but rather lengthy essays:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/540/01/

http://esl.fis.edu/grammar/rules/article.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_%28grammar%29 

It's time to wrap it up. 
 

My next post will deal with only one subject: only. As in where to place it correctly in a sentence (something that seems to be another mystery to way too many writers and editors). Stay tuned ...