Forum: ell.stackexchange.com
Tags: <articles><negation><determiners>
Title: Why is there no article after "no" in "I have no car"
Question: Examples. "I have  no  car", "I have  no  TV". BUT "I have  not a  car"  There was a thread on it, but the answers were pretty superficial to say the least and only based on someone's opinion. I read a whole book (by Seonaid Beckwith) about articles and there is not a single word about that, which is amazing to me. Does anybody actually know the rule? Please, no opinions :)

Answers:
sents: text: Articles belong to a group of words called " determiners ".
text: Besides articles, there are other determiners in the English language, and "no" is a determiner too.
text: Let me quote from BBC: No is a determiner expressing quantity like 'all', 'every', 'many', 'some', 'any', 'each', 'either', 'one', 'another' and is used before singular and plural nouns.
text: It is similar in meaning to ' not a ' or 'not any' and is often our preferred choice if we want to give emphasis to what we are saying.
text: A singular countable noun like car should have some determiner before it, and no suits the purpose.
text: No additional determiner is required.
text: Indeed, in some cases we do combine not with a
text: , I'm not sure what the grammar says about this.
text: "I have not a car" sound quaint and wrong in modern English.
text: Maybe several hundred years ago it was more acceptable?
text: In certain constructions not a + singular count noun certainly remains in use: Not a shirt on my back, Not a penny to my name, Lord, I can't go back home this way.
text: (" 500 miles ", a song)
text: I don't recall the rule explaining this.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/2127/CowperKettle
score: 34
sents: text: "A" is like saying "one": I have a car
text: I have one car Logically then, saying "no" is like saying "zero": I have no car
text: I have zero cars.
text: Therefore, there is no need for an article.
text: "Not" is neither a determiner nor an article, so saying "I haven't a car" is fine as it is (although one is more likely to say "I don't have a car" or, for Americans, "I haven't got a car").
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/66325/Astralbee
score: 32
sents: text: The indefinite article a/an historically originates simply as an unstressed version of the numeral one.
text: Some linguists have even argued that semantically, what is called the "indefinite article" is still just a specialized numeral.
text: And the "negative quantifiers" none and no historically originate from fusion of a negative adverb ne (not used anymore as an independent word) and the numeral one (or indefinite article a/an ).
text: The n sound at the end was lost when a following noun was present, as with the word mine/my.
text: There is no article after
text: no
text: in I have no car because in syntax, no behaves like it contains the indefinite article already.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/18197/sumelic
score: 3
sents: text: In British English, "I haven't got a car" is common usage (Americans would be more likely to say "I don't have a car").
text: "I have no car" is also quite acceptable.
text: Why doesn't "I have not
text: a car" work?
text: It's confused by the fact that "have" is used as both as an auxiliary verb ("I have seen her") and to mean "own" or "possess"
text: ("I have a car").
text: But the negative "have not", is only ever used as an auxiliary.
text: In any case, we don't normally negate a verb by adding "not".
text: We don't say "I walk not to work": it's clear what it means, but it's not idiomatic; we say instead "I don't walk to work".
text: As for the absence of an article, in the sentence "I have no car", the word "no" is essentially performing the same grammatical function as "a" in "
text: I have a car".
text: "a" means one,
text: "no" means zero, you don't want to say "one" and "zero" because they contradict each other.
text: But perhaps I'm appealing too much to logic; idioms often defy logic.
text: Afterthought :
text: what about " I haven't a clue. "?
text: Not to mention " I haven't the faintest idea. "?
text: I think we just have to dismiss those as irregular.
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/95723/Michael Kay
score: 2
sents: text: I have no car.
text: [no ---> adjective]
text: I have no a car.
text: ✖
text: [Two determiners : 'no' & 'a' cannot be used together.]
text: I have not a car.
text: I don't have a car.
text: I haven't got a car.[not ---> adverb]
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/114137/Sandip Kumar Mandal
score: 1
sents: text: "I have no car" is more likely to be used to negate an unjustified assumption, such as "Do you drive a 4x4?", or "Would you drive me to the airport?".
answer_details: author: ell.stackexchange.com/users/106435/Paul_Pedant
score: 0

Summary of the answers:
In  I have no car , because in syntax,  no  behaves like it contains the indefinite article already.  Two determiners : 'no' & 'a' cannot be used together.
Two determiners are never used together as an additional determiner is not required.