How are they different?
1. He was trying to warn that there was a leopard about and to say that all night long he had been threatened by animal.

2. He was trying to warn that there was a leopard about and to say that all night long he had been threatened by an animal.

3 He was trying to warn that there was a leopard about and to say that all night long he had been threatened by the animal.

How the meanings change depending on non-article, the indefinite artice, and the definite artice?

Question

How are they different?
1. He was trying to warn that there was a leopard about and to say that all night long he had been threatened by animal.

2. He was trying to warn that there was a leopard about and to say that all night long he had been threatened by  an animal.

3 He was trying to warn that there was a leopard about and to say that all night long he had been threatened by the animal.

How the meanings change depending on non-article, the indefinite artice, and the definite artice?

Answer

#1 is incorrect, there has to be an article because "animal" is singular. "...threatened by animals." would be ok though.

#2 is not specific about what animal was threatening the man. It might have been the leopard, but could have been some other animal.

#3 is specifically talking about the leopard. The sentence means that the man was threatened by the leopard all night.

Did you write this? It's very well written.

Answer

In this context, since you are referring to one animal (countable noun), you should use either indefinite or definite article.

1. Non-article (usually referred to as zero article) is used for plural or mass nouns. So it doesn't work in this context.
2. The use of indefinite article ("an") means the animal you are referring is not specific or particular.
3. The use of definite article ("the") means you are referring to a specific animal.

So, the general answer is either you are referring to something specific or not.

Answer

Regarding the use of articles, I think only #3 is grammatically correct for your particular sentence.

#1 "animal" -> using the noun animal without an article is grammatically incorrect. Usually, things that can be counted require articles.

E.g.

I play the piano. 
I play tennis.

Here, we can count pianos, but cannot count "tennis".

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Another example for a/an:

The roars of the leopard scared him, so he laid a trap to catch an animal. 
(an animal - could be any animal ... doesn't make sense since we're talking about a leopard)

Correct usage would be something like :-
When kids see an animal at the zoo, they get excited.
(an animal - could mean any animal.. and it makes sense here because there are many different animals inside a zoo)

I opened the packet and took out a pencil.
(a pencil - could mean any pencil inside the packet but since we're not talking about any particular one, it makes sense)

Another example for 'the':

The roars of the leopard scared him, so he laid a trap to catch the animal. 
(the animal - it is the same leopard that was mentioned before)

In day-to-day usage some people might replace "the animal" with the pronoun - it. 
The roars of the leopard scared him, so he laid a trap to catch it.

Answers · 6

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