Learn English – the difference between “one” and “a”
articles
Should I say:
One feature of my work is …
Or
A feature of my work is…
What is the difference?
Best Answer
They are very close semantically. Phonetically, they are a little different. We cannot put phonetic stress on the article a. But we can put phonetic stress on the word one. When we say "one feature of my work," there is therefore an emphasis on the one.
Most commonly, and is as exemplified by your sentence, this emphasis "emphasizes the indefiniteness of the article," i.e. it emphasizes that this is just one of many. Perhaps you don't want the reader to think that this is the only feature of your work. The "one" emphasizes that there could be more.
Without the article, "What is time?" is most likely asking for the definition or meaning of "time". If you asked someone this question, they would likely respond by explaining what the concept of "time" is.
Time is a measure in which events can be ordered from the past through the present into the future, and also the measure of durations of events and the intervals between them. Time is often referred to as the fourth dimension, along with the three spatial dimensions.
The second question is a general question asking for the current time of day. If you asked someone "What is the time?", they would look at a clock of some sort and respond with the current time:
A: What is the time?
B: It's 10:30 AM.
This uses the second definition of "time" (from the same source as above):
[singular] a particular point in time shown on a clock in hours and minutes:
This could also be rephrased as "What time is it?"
Using the definite article the only works if you're talking about a specific group of young people.
Most of the young students at this school learn English.
If you're talking about young people in general, then you need the null article.
Most young people are impatient.
With an singular noun, you need to use “most of the …”, e.g. “he ate most of the cake”. Grammatically, the situation looks different. But there is actually a reason behind this. In “most of the young students at this school”, most qualifies a specific domain (the young students at this school). In “most of the cake”, most qualifies a specific domain (this one cake). In “most young people”, most qualifies the non-specific group of all young people. Since there is no specific domain, there is no definite article.
Best Answer
They are very close semantically. Phonetically, they are a little different. We cannot put phonetic stress on the article a. But we can put phonetic stress on the word one. When we say "one feature of my work," there is therefore an emphasis on the one.
Most commonly, and is as exemplified by your sentence, this emphasis "emphasizes the indefiniteness of the article," i.e. it emphasizes that this is just one of many. Perhaps you don't want the reader to think that this is the only feature of your work. The "one" emphasizes that there could be more.