In the following sentence, why does "Verbindungen" not have any article?
Moskau übt keine direkte Kontrolle auf die hiesige Kirche aus, unterhält aber enge Verbindungen zu dieser.
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Because ordinarily you would expect an indefinite article, but since the indefinite article in German has no plural form, it is simply omitted in plural constructions. (This is a general rule.)
Ich unterhalte eine Verbindung. / Ich unterhalte Verbindungen.
Er hat eine gute Idee. / Er hat gute Ideen.
Further reading:
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@user34255: Because the usage without any article is typically reserved to non-countable things, or to referring to a concept as a whole. – O. R. Mapper Jan 26 '20 at 12:10
