When article can be left out for countable nouns?

Question

In German, it is quite common to see the article left out for countable nouns, e.g., > So gilt die Mietpreisbremse nicht überall, sondern nur in Gebieten mit "angespanntem Wohnungsmarkt". **Es ist Aufgabe** der Bundesländer, diese Gegenden festzulegen. The noun "Aufgabe" is countable, but is used here without an article. In English, we would not say > *It is task of the states Is there a general rule of thumb on when the article can be left out for countable nouns?

Answer 1

That's a really good question and got me thinking! Personally, I would say that you can do it when you are generalising things. In this example, the speaker is not talking about a special task. It's a generalisation. We also say in German "Es ist Pflicht", when you would say, "It's the duty"... We use it when we mean that it always applies.