Each year, one million teenagers start smoking, and every day about three thousand become addicted to the tobacco.
1. start smoking
2. three thousand
3. addicted
4. the tobacco
and could u plz explain what wrong is it.
i'm still discussing with my friends.
2007-01-31 16:45:28 · 9 answers · asked by galzy 1 in Education & Reference ➔ Words & Wordplay
you get addicted to tobacco not "the tobacco"... its an idiomatic error. The sort of thing native speakers will hear as "wrong"... but which can be difficult explain. In this case, the is a definite article, since there is not one, specific tobacco to which everyone gets addicted, the use of the definite article in this situation is incorrect.
If there were one specific thing that someone were addicted to--- like lets say there is a pipe, one pipe in the world, and if you smoke this one pipe, then you get addicted... then you get addicted to "the pipe".
There can be uses of definite articles when the noun used, while not "unique," is specific or definite for the situation. In one of the answers above, someone mentions "the smell"; in this example, there is one specific smell that someone is noticing, like the smell associated with smoking cigarettes... "the smell" of cigarettes is specific enough to be definite... if, in context, someone doesn't or can't recognize "the smell" then an indefinite article is more approprate: a smell. There is a smell in the room, but I dont know what it is.
As for countability, that is an okay explanation as well... but it breaks down in a lot of examples... like we are addicted to oil, but the oil on the driveway is very slick. here the noun used is the same, but the context makes one noun, one "oil" indefinite, and the other definite.
i hope that helps
jason
email me at
jason@focusedcoaching.com if you have any more qs.
the rest of the sentence, while i might reword it, looks okay.
Note on the comma, commas are necessary when two independent clauses are joined by a conjunction, so you cant take out the comma before the and.
2007-01-31 17:03:49 · answer #1 · answered by jason frazzano, esq. 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Each year, one million teenagers start smoking and every day about three thousand become addicted to tobacco.
No comma after "smoking" or before any conjunction for that matter.
Omit the word "the" before tobacco.
Other than that, it's fine.
2007-01-31 16:51:26 · answer #2 · answered by Jack 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
1. no comma after 'smoking'
2. requires the word 'people'
3. they become addicted to nicotine
4. lose the word 'the'
2007-01-31 16:59:02 · answer #3 · answered by balderarrow 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The tabacco.
It should read: become addicted to tabacco.
Tabacco is a noun, not a Name of a Place.
I am addicted to the SMELL of tabacco. would be proper.
the common before and is fine. it devides the sentence.
okay?
2007-01-31 16:53:42 · answer #4 · answered by Lilly 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
# 1 is wrong. It should be one million teenagers starts smoking.
2007-01-31 16:56:32 · answer #5 · answered by ♨ Wisper ► 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
um, 4!
because.. to THE tobacco? it sounds odd
to tobacco should be just fine
in my opinion
2007-01-31 16:54:47 · answer #6 · answered by mel 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
"The tobacco" is wrong. Tobacco is an uncountable noun; it doesn't take the definite article.
2007-01-31 17:00:07 · answer #7 · answered by Bethany 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
addicted to the nicotine,otherwise i can find no fault with the sentence as constructed.
2007-01-31 17:46:33 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
honestly, I don't see anything wrong with that sentence except MAYBE the comma after smoking isn't necessary.
2007-01-31 16:49:51 · answer #9 · answered by GreenIYD 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋