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Please use other door?
Is "Stick no bills" correct English?
“train approaching”
What's with syntax in newspaper headlines?

Well, I know the basic rules about using articles, but this is a different case. On pedestrian traffic lights there are signs like:

Press button. Wait for signal.

Why aren’t there any articles before button and signal here?

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Arturs Vancans
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1 Answers1

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It's done to make it concise and sound like an instruction. eg

Break egg and put in bowl.

You assume that the article the is used, as in "Break the egg and put it in the bowl." In recipes, ingredients are mentioned before the instructions, so the article the is more appropriate.

To make the instructions concise and easy to read, this implied article is omitted.

notablytipsy
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  • And is it grammatically correct? Why it's not Break an egg and put in a bowl? – Arturs Vancans Aug 02 '12 at 11:53
  • As I said, to make it concise. You assume that the article the is used, as in "Break the egg and put in the bowl." (in recipes, ingredients are mentioned before the instructions, so the article the is more appropriate). To make it concise and easy to read, this implied article is omitted. – notablytipsy Aug 02 '12 at 11:57
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    Good analogy. Some situations simply don't call for "grammatically correct" sentences; one such situation is giving basic instructions, whether that's the decal describing how to use a blow dryer, or a recipe describing how to make a soufflé. Highway signs are another example where we don't need to write like Dickens. – J.R. Aug 02 '12 at 12:06
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    I know, if I was falling out of a plane wearing a parachute not knowing what to do, I'd prefer to read "pull cord" than "reach across your chest with your right and hand and pull the cord away from your left breast". ;o) – Ste Aug 02 '12 at 12:11
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    @asymptotically Shouldn't it be "Break the egg and put it in the bowl."? – Luke_0 Aug 02 '12 at 13:31
  • That's the point. While writing instructions (especially those as important as parachute opening instructions), you want it to be concise and eliminate "obvious" words, see @Ste's comment for an example and a laugh. – notablytipsy Aug 02 '12 at 13:38
  • I meant for the"grammatically correct" version, not the shortened one. ROFLOL +1 – Luke_0 Aug 02 '12 at 13:50
  • Oh, right, sorry :P I'll edit that. I was wondering why you had bold-ified the it ... – notablytipsy Aug 02 '12 at 13:54