Start networking and exchanging professional insights

Register now or log in to join your professional community.

Follow

Can you tell what's the difference between "family is the biggest treasure" and "the family is the biggest treasure" and which one is correct?

user-image
Question added by Fida Abo Alrob , Sr. Copywriter , Imena Digital
Date Posted: 2013/08/29
Samar Saleh
by Samar Saleh , Community Manager , Bayt.com

In the second sentence it refers to one certain family, but first sentence implies to the importance of the family in general. 

علي حسيب صديق الحيالي
by علي حسيب صديق الحيالي , معلم , مدرسة الماس الاهلية

Both of them are grammatically correct but differ in meaning whereas the first senrence shows the importance of the "family" in general , presenting the info as a fact, while the second sentence talks about a specified "family"

 

Natasha Hasan
by Natasha Hasan , Translator - Proofreader , Effect.AI

Most of the previous answers are correct and thre is not much to add. No doubt that both are correct and the meaning depends on the speaker point of view; weather it is a generalization as the second sentence or indicating a specific family as in the first sentence. 

  From the grammatical side the second one is correct otherwise the first, cause we are talking here about the superlative.

abualgassiem abdualgadir
by abualgassiem abdualgadir , english lanuage teacher , khartoum foundation for private school (gabbas)

the second  sentence is identified by definite article which refers to certain family

Shosho Naji
by Shosho Naji , lecturer , University of Diyala

The first sentence talks about family in general (fact) >>> the second sentence has a definite article ,therefore , it refers to a particular family.

Good luck.

Ahmed Elmeligi
by Ahmed Elmeligi , English Language Teacher , Al hammad International for Projects and Development

Both are correct but it depends on the speakers meaning "Family is ...." is a general statement but "The family is ......
" specific family like some one who speaks about his/her own family.

In my opinion, I think that the first senctence is more accurate to use.
The lack of an article or the zero article as some call it, is used when making general statements, so when we're talking about all families of just the idea of family being a treasure, it is diffinitely better and more accurate not to use an article.
Now the second sentence is a little ambiguous because the reader has no knowledge what family it is you're talking about, so when you say "the family" somewhere in your context, you need to have a refrence to that, other wise there wouldn't be much sense there!

Gandhi Subramanian Rajagopalan
by Gandhi Subramanian Rajagopalan , Reader, PG & Research Department of English , Collegiate Education, Government of Tamilnadu

The first sentence "Family is the biggest treasure" talks in general terms, whereas the second one refers to a particular/ specific family by stating "the family" by using the 'Definite article'.

Both sentences are grammatically correct.

Dr.R.Gandhi Subramanian.

rakesh cheemalamarri
by rakesh cheemalamarri , Asst.Professor , Brilliant group of Institutions

hii...
both are same i think so.....

Ahmed Gendy
by Ahmed Gendy , English Senior Inspector , Ministry of Education (MoE)

The first one  means  having a family .On the other hand ,the family means the members of a certain family.

More Questions Like This

Do you need help in adding the right keywords to your CV? Let our CV writing experts help you.