Is there ALWAYS a preposition before a single noun?

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cuocvuitancung@gmail.com - 30 May 2009 08:25 GMT

Hi all,
I wonder if there is ALWAYS a preposition before a single noun.
There are two cases that make me confused.

1/ I have a car. But today I don't have it because my brother borrowed
it yesterday.
Could I say " I don't have CAR today" ?

2/ I saw my doctor last week, could I say " on the day I had SERVICE,
dr.X said that...." ?

Thank you very much.

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georgeh@ankerstein.org - 30 May 2009 13:22 GMT

On May 30, 3:25 am, cuocvuitanc...@gmail.com wrote:

> Hi all,
> I wonder if there is ALWAYS a preposition before a single noun.
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> it yesterday.
> Could I say " I don't have CAR today" ?

No.

> 2/ I saw my doctor last week, could I say " on the day I had SERVICE,
> dr.X said that...." ?

No. Not even if dr.X is a hooker.

GFH

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cuocvuitancung@gmail.com - 30 May 2009 15:28 GMT

On May 30, 8:22 am, geor...@ankerstein.org wrote:

> On May 30, 3:25 am, cuocvuitanc...@gmail.com wrote:
>
[quoted text clipped - 14 lines]
>
> GFH

So could you please correct my sentence?

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mywings - 30 May 2009 15:56 GMT

> Hi all,
> I wonder if there is ALWAYS a preposition before a single noun.
> There are two cases that make me confused.

I believe the word you want is "article", or perhaps more broadly
"determiner". Here are two pages from an English grammar website
that talk about these parts of speach:
http://www.learnenglish.de/grammar/articlestext.htm
http://www.learnenglish.de/grammar/determinertext.htm

> 1/ I have a car. But today I don't have it because my brother
> borrowed
> it yesterday.
> Could I say " I don't have CAR today" ?

No. You could say: "I don't have A car today." or "I don't have
MY car today." or "I don't have ANY car today." but in any case,
you would need a "determiner" before the word CAR.

> 2/ I saw my doctor last week, could I say " on the day I had
> SERVICE,
> dr.X said that...." ?

You could get your car serviced (assuming you had the car on that
day), but using the word "service" in regards to people can be
tricky. You can receive service, including medical service. But
if you ARE serviced, that implies a sexual connotation that would
not be appropriate except in very limited circumstances.

It would be more common to speak of having a doctor's
appointment, or consulting your doctor. You could say something
like: "On the day of my appointment, Dr. X said that..." Or you
could shorten the original statement quite a bit and say: "I saw
my doctor last week, and he said...."

Alice

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Discussion Groups / English Usage / May 2009

Is there ALWAYS a preposition before a single noun?