a 4 star hotel complete with a/x swimming pool

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    Tazzler

    Senior Member
    Maryland
    American English
    I think that after "complete with" (especially in house advertisements) it is common for the article to be dropped. Including it wouldn't of course be a mistake.
     
    owlman5

    owlman5

    Senior Member
    Colorado
    English-US
    The writer could just as easily have written "complete with a swimming pool". Your source contains compressed commercial language, which isn't unusual in descriptions of hotels. This is one of many examples where a writer's decision to omit an article isn't entirely clear. For some reason, the phrase "complete with swimming pool" is fairly common. If you take a look at the section on articles in this Guide to Grammar and Writing, you'll see a comment that I agree with: Even after you learn all the principles behind the use of these articles, you will find an abundance of situations where choosing the correct article or choosing whether to use one or not will prove chancy. Icy highways are dangerous. The icy highways are dangerous. And both are correct.
     
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