What are your thoughts on written English omitting article "the"? A or an? Is it acceptable? Sound/look ridiculous? Proper?

[DrPepper12]

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/15/definite-article-radical-decline-last-century-research

Research shows that the frequency of the definite article "the" has decreased in written English over the 20th century. One linguist, Mark Liberman, observed this trend while analyzing State of the Union addresses, noting a significant decline in the usage of "the" compared to earlier addresses.

However, the frequency of the indefinite article "a/an" has shown an increase, although it doesn't fully offset the decline of "the," suggesting a shift in article usage patterns rather than a complete replacement.

One proposed explanation for this decline is a long-term trend towards greater informality in writing, where writing styles increasingly resemble speech. Omission of articles is also common in specific contexts where brevity is prioritized, such as headlines, titles, and informal communication like text messages and social media posts.

While there's no evidence of an organized effort to remove articles from English, their usage is evolving, especially in modern written communication, where shorter syntax, more conversational grammar, and a preference for concise expression are becoming more prevalent.

A "How To" usage guide

https://www.butte.edu/departments/cas/tipsheets/grammar/articles.html

Interesting:

https://www.thoughtco.com/definite-article-grammar-1690423

https://preply.com/en/blog/8-rules-for-using-the-article-the-in-english/

[Beckybooboo]

I moved to where I currently live over two years ago and one of the things I did was go on the local website to learn it's history. People are always adding old articles of the towns history, going back to 1888, and I'm amazed at how elegantly people wrote back then. They took pride it their writing. In 1908, they had a huge fire on main Street and this is how the article started.

In the darkness and peace of the early morning hours on 27 of April 1908, the silence was broken by the sound of bells warning of an out of control fire. The village people's lungs were already burning from inhaling the toxic smoke before word got to the local fire station.

With horse drawn carriages and a river near by offering ample water, the village and townspeople began fighting with great courage and passion.

That's the beginning of a novel! 😂. All the articles from years ago are like that, even when they covered local sports. If people still wrote like that, I might actually subscribe to a paper lol

[wynning]

We live in reductive times. It's all about the 3 R's, reduce, reuse, recycle!

No it's not... this is about removing~ Might be some form of linguistic austerity?
I guess some things just don't get replaced.
Because it's too reverent to (the!) times of old to do.

[OneViewpoint]

I lived in central PA for a couple of years as the CFO of a heavy industrial startup. I found it hilarious that no one there uses the verb "to be".

• If something is broken they would say it "needs fixed".
• If your clothes get dirty they would say they "need cleaned"
• If you left the door open they would say it "needs closed"

It's like the verb to be has been erased from the English language for them. Dutch influence? Regional dialect? I found myself doing a "wait, what" about 10 times a day.

[DrPepper12]

I've noticed that too and yes blame the Dutch!!

[In_Trance]

I really can't see how anyone would give a shit about this hence why everyone uses slang terms and texts using shorthand anyways

[purplepoppy]

Let's not forget "thee" which seems to have died out in writing but lives on in speech when you really want to emphasise something.

[DrPepper12]

Great point!! Thee & thou are outliers!!

[chrissykerdock]

wow i never thought of that