In the absence or in the absence - which is correct?

In Russian, a productive way of word formation is the transition from one part of speech to another. An example would be the transformation of some nouns or their forms into adverbs, derived prepositions and prepositional combinations. In this case, the derived words do not obey the spelling rules that are mandatory for the part of speech from which they are formed.

This also applies to the words “in absence” and “in absence”: different rules apply in their writing, depending on what part of speech they are.

The nouns "in the absence" and "in the absence" have an independent lexical meaning and denote a state, a position when something is not available or the person referred to is not at a given time in a specific, designated in the sentence place.

These nouns in combination with the preposition "v" represent the accusative and prepositional forms.

The meaning of words of this type is determined by the context: it manifests itself only due to the semantic connection with other words:

In the absenceandof the duty officer at the post, the commission found a gross violation of discipline... (The attendant was absent.)

In the absence ofein the warehouse of the necessary materials, it was hard to believe. (The materials seemed to be absent.)

Between the preposition "in" and the words "absence" / "absence" one can insert a definition: in criminal absence, in imaginary absence.

Accusative and prepositional forms of the noun “absence” are formed as neuter nouns na -ii, -ie. In the accusative case they have the ending -e, in the instrumental case -i. Consequently, when writing the words "in the absence" and "in the absence" one must be guided by case questions.

Accusative: whom? what? - (in) absencee

Prepositional: in whom? in what? - in the absenceand

The noun “absence” in the accusative form with the preposition “in” can turn into an adverbial-prepositional combination “in the absence”. It indicates a person who is absent during any action referred to in the sentence:

In the absence ofe(who?) Ivan Petrovich, there was a change of personnel in the department.

The boy grew up in (whose?) Her absence and became even more like his father.

In these sentences “in absence” is a derivative adverbial-prepositional combination that retained the accusative form of the noun “absence”.

It is not a member of the sentence, does not change and retains the form of writing with –e at the end.

TheDifference.ru determined that the difference between the words “in the absence” and “in the absence” is as follows:

  1. The prepositional form of the noun “Absence” is written with –e at the end: “in absence”. The accusative case of this noun has the ending -e: "in the absence."
  2. The case forms "in the absence" and "in the absence" differ from the adverbial-prepositional combination "in the absence" by the presence of lexical meaning. An adverbial-prepositional combination only indicates the person referred to in the sentence.
  3. Between the preposition and the nouns "in the absence" - "in the absence", one can insert a meaningful definition. The combination of the adverbial-prepositional type "in the absence" does not change and is an indivisible whole.
  4. The adverbial-prepositional combination "in the absence" is formed from a similar form of the accusative case; its correct spelling is with the letter -e at the end.
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