Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[nawee]

Hello,

Do I need "the" in the following sentences?

"Tutorial schools are an important part of (the) Japanese education system."

"Crime arises from inequality in (the) society."

And is it "crime" (uncountable) or "crimes" (countable)? What is the difference between the uncountable "crime" and the countable "crime"?

Thank you,

Nawee

[CP]

You need "the" in the first sentence because there is only one Japanese educational system, the one that you are talking about.

You don't need "the" in the second sentence, and you probably wouldn't hear a native speaker use it in that sentence, any more than you would need it if you substituted "income" or "intelligence" or "education" or "luck" in place of "society."

You want "crime" in your sentence because you are talking about the concept of crime, not the committing of particular criminal acts. A burglar might commit three crimes in one night, because he leads a life of crime, and his bad acts would perhaps raise the crime rate in his town, where crime might be great (there are lots of crimes committed) or small (few crimes).
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