shared 'a' love for / shared love for [indefinite articles]

[sayedofathi]

Hi Everybody,

1-They shared a love for the moments of inspiration they got.
2-They shared love for the moments of inspiration they got.

can anybody tell if there is grammatical mistake in this couple of sentences and show the difference between them? and say why we use ''a'' in that context?


Regards
Sayed

 

[Loob]

Can you give us some context, sayedofathi? Did you write this sentence, and if so, what do you want it to mean?

 

[sayedofathi]

Hi Loob,

I wrote them but by that I just wanted to understand why it is so in the following paragraph quoted from the New York Times newspaper:

''Growing up in California’s rural Central Valley, the two cousins spent summers racing dirt bikes and Christmases at their grandmother’s on the coast. Endowed with a similar brash charm, they bought each other matching hardhats and sought iron-working jobs together. They shared a love for the rush that comes with hanging steel at dizzying heights, and a knack for collecting speeding tickets''.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/health/research/19trial.html?hp

looking forward to your answer
Regards,
Sayed

 

[Trailbosstom]

It's simple. Love can be used as a count noun or a non-count noun. The countable tends to be more specific in meaning: "He had a love for whiskey." (It's his personal love.) Without the indefinite article, the sentence is far more general. "Love of drinking has ruined the lives and fortunes of many." (This love is not just one person's but everyone's the world over.)

 

[sayedofathi]

Thank you trailbosstom for this great answer.

What would the above underlined sentence(New York Times) mean if I delete the ''a'' ? Can one do that? why the writer used it?

Does this rule apply to all the nouns that are both countable and noncountable?

Sorry but I want the idea to sink deep in my mind.

Thanks a lot

 

[e2efour]

They share a love is the expression we normally use. It is a particular love or liking and to leave out of would make it sound unnatural to me.

"They shared chocolate between them" (chocolate here is a non-count noun).
"They shared a chocolate between them" (chocolate here is a count noun, although sharing one chocolate would not go far!).

 

[sayedofathi]

ok E2EFOUR! Thanks alot,

How do you see the following sentences? are they ok?


They share a love for travelling.
They have a passion for freelancing.
They get an enjoyment when they are out.
He shows an emotion towards children.
He gives a cry when he is at risk.
He makes a problem when he is bad-tempered.
He needs a prize to get encouraged.
He gets a punishment when makes mistakes.

Thank you in advance sorry for disturbing you

Elsayed

 

[e2efour]

They share a love for travelling.
They have a passion for freelancing.
He shows an emotion towards children.
He gives a cry when he is at risk.
He needs a prize to get encouraged.

He getsreceives a punishment when he makes mistakes.

He makes a problem when he is bad-tempered.
[What does "make a problem" mean? He is a problem(?) or He causes a problem(?)]

They get an enjoyment when they are out.
[This is enjoyment in general. It is sometimes used as a count noun, but you must specify what it involves. Here is an example from the British National Corpus, which gives 8 examples (http://corpus.byu.edu/bnc/)]

"to stimulate an interest in and an enjoyment of the subject"

 

[e2efour]

The question of count/non-count nouns should be covered in any elementary grammar book.

You might like to look at http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/learnit/learnitv192.shtml, which deals this question. This site often gives nice example sentences to explain various points.

By the way, "a love of travel" sounds better than "a love for travelling".