Reply
Tue 22 Jan, 2008 03:32 pm
Sentence:
I think counsel tends to oversimplify the issue somewhat.
Question:
Should there be a "a" before counsel in the above sentence?
Thanks in advance!
No, there should not be. This is a reference to an attorney in a courtroom, and it is a courteous formula to refer to that attorney as counsel. Therefore, to use "a counsel" would confuse matters, since the counsel referred to is known, and "a" is the indefinite article.
By the way, you should have written: Should there be an "a" before counsel in the above sentence?
The indefinite article "an" is used before any vowel sound. So, i would say: "He is a man with ambition." But i would say: "He is an ambitious man."
Setanta wrote:No, there should not be. This is a reference to an attorney in a courtroom, and it is a courteous formula to refer to that attorney as counsel. Therefore, to use "a counsel" would confuse matters, since the counsel referred to is known, and "a" is the indefinite article.
By the way, you should have written: Should there be an "a" before counsel in the above sentence?
The indefinite article "an" is used before any vowel sound. So, i would say: "He is a man with ambition." But i would say: "He is an ambitious man."
Thank you very much, Setanta!
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