Question
27 Nov 2020
- Arabic
-
English (US)
Question about English (US)
There is no a specific reason for that
There is no specific reason for that
There is not a specific reason for that
Which one is correct ?
There is no a specific reason for that
There is no specific reason for that
There is not a specific reason for that
Which one is correct ?
There is no specific reason for that
There is not a specific reason for that
Which one is correct ?
Answers
Read more comments
- Portuguese (Brazil)
- English (US)
both second and third sentences are right, even though they have different grammars. basically, the second one emphasizes "no" and the third one "specific". the first one is wrong.
- Arabic
@gabelesma Oh . Thank you .
could you please tell me why the first sentence is wrong ?
could you please tell me why the first sentence is wrong ?
- Portuguese (Brazil)
- English (US)
@supernal_shampoo well, for that you need to understand the difference between "not" and "no" in the middle of a sentence.
"Not" is an adverb, which means it negates the verb (the action).
"No" besides being an interjection, like in "No, I'm not American", it is also a determiner that negates the existence of a noun (something).
When you say "There is not a reason", "is" is negated, so that "not" is part of the verbal clause.
If you say "There is no reason", "reason" is negated instead, so that "no" is part of the nominal clause.
Now if we look closer into the nominal clause in the first sentence, you can see it is "no a (specific) reason" and it just doesn't make sense because you're saying "reason" exists and doesn't at the same time xD "no" and "a" are opposite determiners. It's like saying "a few many reasons". Got it?
- Arabic
@gabelesma Ooh I feel like I got it xD
So, I negated " Specific " instead of " Reason " when I said
there is" no a specific" reason !
So, I negated " Specific " instead of " Reason " when I said
there is" no a specific" reason !
- Portuguese (Brazil)
- English (US)
@supernal_shampoo not really. since "specific" is also part of that clause it doesn't matter, that's why i tried to omit "specific" from my examples not to confuse you but it didn't work 😂 the point is that since "no" negates the noun (in contrast to "not") and using it alongside "a" is contraditory and wrong. "not a reason" is ok but "no a reason" isn't.

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