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I consider myself a pretty advanced English teacher and user. Nonetheless, I've recently found myself in a pretty difficult spot trying to explain which of the following sentences is correct:

My favourite animal is a dog

My favourite animal is the dog

My favourite animal is dog

My instinct tells me the dog is the correct one, but I've found so many instances on the internet where native speakers say My favourite animal is dog that makes me wonder if that sentence is also correct.

Additionally, I know that a sentence like My favourite food is pizza sounds pretty right to me, making the whole thing so complicated that I cannot figure out any rule that governs using articles in the above sentences.

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IGO
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    My favourite animal is the dog , means the category of animal you prefer (correct one here) My favourite animal is a dog, means a particular dog (the one you've at home, for example) My favourite animal is dog, would be okay if you were eating dog meat – P. O. Dec 16 '15 at 15:18
  • An English teacher would not write english and might consider putting a conjunction between teacher and user. –  Dec 16 '15 at 15:23
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    @P.Obertelli I think it's the other way around! – AnthonyBlake Dec 16 '15 at 15:48
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    @P.Obertelli- Good comment: smart, insightful and funny! You should clean it up and post it as an answer. – Mark Hubbard Dec 16 '15 at 16:48
  • @MarkHubbard I'm at work I didn't have time to support my answer with all the bell and whisttles required on the site. – P. O. Dec 16 '15 at 20:02
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    'Dog' is entirely wrong. It should be 'cat'. – Mitch Dec 16 '15 at 21:05
  • @AnthonyBlake- no, he’s got it the right way ’round. – Jim Dec 16 '15 at 23:03
  • That's odd... when I google "my favorite animal is dog," I mostly find it used by non-native speakers, and in grammatical discussions where native speakers say it sounds odd. – herisson Dec 17 '15 at 08:00
  • @Rathony what do you mean? – IGO Jan 19 '16 at 19:19

1 Answers1

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My favourite animal is the dog

As P. Obertelli mentioned in comments, the one with the definite article is correct. The definite article is used before a singular noun to represent the whole class.

When a singular noun is meant to represent a whole class to which it belongs, it is used with the definite article the.

  • The cow is a useful animal. (Here the singular noun cow represents a whole class.)
  • The rose is the sweetest of all flowers.
  • The spider has eight legs.

(englishgrammar.org)

You can google all kinds of usage, but in my opinion that is no excuse for educated English speakers to blindly accept everything you can find without a good reason or sound judgement. So I would say dropping the article is wrong here, even though the context would probably make it clear what you mean.

Others might disagree, but I'm on the side of Bryan A. Garner here, who calls himself a descriptive prescriptivist.

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