Learn English – singular or plural? – “an additional five words” vs ” additional five words”

articlessingular-vs-plural

Why do we need "an" in these sentences below?

  • I run an additional three-tenths of a kilometer.

  • I write an additional 5 words.

As an English learner, I would omit "an," because it's illogical for me. I see plural forms, so my first reaction is to omit the articles. I would say:

  • I run additional three-tenths of a kilometer.

  • I write additional 5 words.

Please explain me the differences between these sentences, because my all grammar knowledge has just fallen.

I found a semi-explanation here, does it make any sense?

Best Answer

"an (additional)" treats whatever follows as a whole.

Compare:

  • I run an additional three-tenths of a kilometer.
  • I run an additional distance.

and

  • I write an additional 5 words.
  • I write an additional paragraph.

If you want to remove "an", you can use:

  • I run additionally three-tenths of a kilometer.
  • I run three-tenths of a kilometer more.

or:

  • I write additionally 5 words.
  • I write 5 words more.
  • I write 5 more words. (which is actually much better than previous)
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