Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[faith2k]

Dear Teachers,

When do you add the article a in front of "lack of" ?
For example, "a lack of reliable experimental data" seems proper, but why "lack of funding" is correct and "a lack of funding" is not? This is quite confusing.

Thank you for your help.

Faith

[IanT]

To be honest, I don't see much wrong with "A lack of funding".

I've looked at quite a few examples on the web before answering, and in most cases including the "a", if it's not already there, seems fine to me.

The exception is phrases like "lack of sleep" which suggest ongoing, continuous lack and not just a single instance of lack. There I would leave out the "a".

But in most cases either way is OK.

Hope helps,
Ian
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[faith2k]

Thank you Ian for the answer.

Faith