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Do I need to place an article in a phrase like:

You could find it on [a/the] page seven.

What is the corresponding grammar rule?

Thank you in advance

Konstantin
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    No, you do not use an article in phrases of the form "on page X". The corresponding grammar rule is: you do not use an article in phrases of the form "on page X". – RegDwigнt Jun 05 '15 at 10:44
  • So on a page seven is incorrect? – Konstantin Jun 05 '15 at 12:29
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    @Konstantin yes, in general. There is no doubt some artificial context one could decide in which that sentence would be correct. Perhaps "the reader sought the numeral 7 on the ninth page of several books, but in the end he found it on a page seven." Here, the infinite article is used because we arespeeding about one arbitrary page seven out of several possible page sevens. – phoog Jun 05 '15 at 14:37

1 Answers1

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The implied name of the location is 'page seven'; that carries with it the meaning that the place is a page. Naming it 'seven' would be too vague as there might also be a chapter called 'seven' and a volume called 'seven'. So "it's on page seven" is fine as the name is all you need. The alternative would be "it's on the seventh page," - also fine, because you are then identifying the page by position, not by name.

This pattern is repeated elsewhere. You wouldn't say "take this suitcase to the room seven," just as you wouldn't say "the suitcase belongs to the Konstantin." However, you might say "take this suitcase to the front bedroom." In that case, 'the front bedroom' is not a name, only an identifying description (with preceding adjective).

JHCL
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  • JHCP, thank you for the reply! How is it possible to distinguish in general that "front bedroom" isn't a name, but "room seven" is? – Konstantin Jun 05 '15 at 12:37
  • Common usage suggests that if the identifier ('seven') is preceded by the type ('page'), then it's being used as a name. Note that this doesn't apply to existing (proper) names, where a preceding type would not become part of the name and so would need the article: "on board the starship Enterprise", "we were visited by the angel Gabriel", except where the type is actually a title and therefore part of the name ("we were visited by General Eisenhower"). – JHCL Jun 05 '15 at 12:49