Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[b7lake]

#1(1)We nominated him for president.
(2)We nominated him for a president.
Which one is correct?

#2(1)The President nominated her as head of the Civil Rights Committee.
(2)The President nominated her as a head of the Civil Rights Committee.
Which one is correct?

#3(1)We elected her as chairman.
(2)We elected her as a chairman.
Which one is correct?

#4(1)They appointed Mr Brown manager.
(2)They appointed Mr Brown a manager.
Which one is correct?

Thanks for your help!

[redset]

If you're talking about a specific position which the reader is aware of, so it's obvious which position you're talking about, omit the a. If there are several positions, we would usually include the a (the indefinite article) to show that it is one of many. So:

1) No a - there's only one president, and we also use for a and for the to mean the person will win or receive something (he won a president!), or to do something on behalf of someone (a president asked us to nominate someone). Basically when we're saying 'nominated for' in this way, we don't use an article (a, an or the).

2) Is there more than one head? If so, use a.

3) Is there more than one chairman position you could be talking about? If there's only one, don't use a.

4) Similar to (1), [a]appoint Mr Brown a manager[/i] means 'appoint someone as a manager, to help or supervise Mr Brown' - Mr Brown is going to get a manager. So we omit the a when we're talking about appointing Mr Brown to the position.