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Grammar aside, I'd say the plural feels more natural in this case: "Linux distributions are well-tested collections of packages …" But for singular you need t
by pluma 12y ago
Grammar aside, I'd say the plural feels more natural in this case:
"Linux distributions are well-tested collections of packages …"
But for singular you need to qualify "Linux distribution":
"A Linux distribution is a well-tested collection of packages …"
And I'd probably say "by a vendor" instead of "by the vendor" as it's not clear you're talking about a specific vendor.
Also, the "a" is wrong in this:
"There’s a support for …"
This should be: "There is support for …", in other words: "Support exists for …". Support is non-countable (like water, peace or terrorism) in English.
As a rule of thumb:
* if it's non-countable, just leave it bare: "I bought water", "It has support", "This is murder".
* if you're referring to a specific instance of something the audience knows about or you're going to qualify, use "the": "I bought the house [I previously told you about]", "I shot the gopher that kept digging up my lawn".
* otherwise use "a": "I bought a house" (this is news to you), "I ran over a cat" (if you say "the cat", the listener would instantly think "which one?").
English is "fun".
- dllthomas 12y agoEnglish has a countable "support" - it can be used to refer to several physical objects in various structural contexts (architecture being one). That is not the sense in which it's being used here, though.
- pbhjpbhj 12y agoIn English (en-gb) colloquialism "I ran over the cat" would be perfectly fine as "the cat" is understood to mean "our/my cat". "Your dinner's in the dog", "I locked the keys in the car", et cetera. Similarly in a sentence like "Why don't you and the family come up to the house sometime for tea.". "The house" substitutes for "our house". Now all you need to work out is whether tea is afternoon tea, a cup of tea, or an evening meal and if the offer is sincere. I gather the response is supposed to be "That would be lovely." rather than actually trying to arrange the proffered social meeting.
- pluma 12y agoSure, but presume neither the speaker nor the recipient owns a cat. Without an obvious context ("the cat"? what cats could we both know of?), it's not entirely clear. Saying "the" instead of "a" generally assumes a context that has either been established before during the conversation or outside of it. Imagine a stranger telling you they "accidentally killed the koala". You'd be confused. Not that strangers telling you about exotic animals they accidentally killed wouldn't be confusing enough.
- pbhjpbhj 12y agoI wasn't disagreeing I was just adding extra depth to what you said. Yes it's not entirely clear language, that's why it's colloquialism rather than being adopted as proper speech/writing. Like you say "the item" means there should be an antecedent [previous mention]. If someone said they'd "killed the koala" I'd assume it was a euphemism for something!!