: Do we use an article with every item in a list of countable singular nouns? For example: An RLC circuit is composed of resistor, inductor, and capacitor elements. Or: An RLC circuit

Vote Up Vote Down

It depends. How many of them are there?

An RLC circuit is composed of a resistor, an inductor, and a capacitor elements.

This means that an RLC circuit has exactly one of each of these three elements. I crossed out your final "elements", because if you say that an X consists of an A, a B, and a C, you don't then add the category noun after. A sentence with the same meaning as yours is:

An RLC circuit is composed of the following elements: a resistor, an inductor, and a capacitor.

The other option you asked about is:

An RLC circuit is composed of resistor, inductor, and capacitor elements.

This means that an RLC circuit has some combination of those elements, possibly including more than one of each. In some contexts it could mean that some categories are absent, though engineers and other "close readers" might take it to mean "at least one of each".

(0)