"Care este efectul hidrogenului pe acest obiect?"

Translation: What is the effect of hydrogen on this object?

[andriana2406]

Can someone explain why there's no "the"?

[Wes708337]

This looks to be a general statement, in which case the article is not used in English even though it is in Romanian. If you were describing an experiment in which you compare the effects of different gases on the object you would use the article, but nothing in the statement implies such a comparison. As an American chemistry teacher, my natural instinct was exactly the same as the given translation.

[nahuatl1939]

again ! why not THE hydrogen ?

[D3XT3RY0NuT]

I think that the English sentence should be "What is the effect of the hydrogen on this object?"

[Gzeebzee]

Pe dirijabilul acea?

[nfmonteiro]

Oh, umanitatea!

[nfmonteiro]

Oh, umanitatea!

[DornenEngel]

if you want to use an article then you should use: what's the hydrogen's effect on this object.
Sadly this answer is not accepted. :-(

Otherwise you can still argue if it is a general statement or not.

[olb38]

Second time the same problem

[MrMirai]

I know it is not really proper English, but "the hydrogen" should be a valid answer. This would be more consistent with the rest of the course.