Wishing you a Prosperous Year of Rabbit!
With warmest regards,
Joseph J.Y.Sung
Vice-Chancellor and President
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
I believe most alumni who provide their email address to the Alumni Affairs Office have received the above email. I do not try to pick bone but I sent a return email to point out the grammatical error. I would say Year of The Rabbit instead of Year of Rabbit. Grammatically speaking, the + singular noun can represent a class of animals or things. You may say Rabbit Year but not Year of Rabbit. The same applies to other Chinese Zodiacs.
Did they get back to you?
回覆刪除Yes, did they get back to you?
回覆刪除I sent an email to Alumni Affairs Office to say I would use Year of the Rabbit instead omitting the article. So far I did not hear any reply.
回覆刪除The Vice-Chancellor's New Year Message issued on 14 Feb 2011 begins with
回覆刪除A Happy Year of the Rabbit to you!
It may connote a rectification of the mistake.