Learn English – Document names and proper nouns/definite articles

definite-articles

I'm a translator and not a native speaker of English and have some troubles understanding definite articles.

Any feedback for my problem would be of great help for me.

What is the rule for document names and proper nouns? I need to translate the following sentence into English: "Documents that increase Inventory and stock list amount are as follows…" Now, 'Inventory and stock list' is a proper noun in this case, it is a caption in our software, but in this context I refer to amount, why I don't need the definite article there? What will modify that noun? Would it be incorrect to say: "Documents that increase the Inventory and stock list amount are as follows…"

I need a grammatical explanation for this.
'It sounds good but I don't know why' rule is driving me crazy.

Best Answer

While I wouldn't dare to say that this is a 'rule', I would say that the definite article the is generally used before mass / uncountable nouns when you are referring to a specific instance of that noun.

In your example, you are referring to the Inventory and stock list amount, rather than, say, the purchase amount, or the sales amount, or the amount of your salary.

Similarly, you might say:

The twenty people on the course - as distinct from people in general (no article), or the millions of people not on the course.
The hospital staff - as distinct from The university staff
The river water - as distinct from water in general (no article), or from The lake water.

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