"I grew up in the city." or "I grew up in city."?
Which one is correct? I learnt that "the" is used for specific things, places, ect., but I saw the line "I grew up in the city" on the internet and i'm confused.

By the way is it correct to put a full stop after "ect", THEN put a comma after it, then continue the next part of the sentence? (for example the sentence above)

Question

"I grew up in the city." or "I grew up in city."?
Which one is correct? I learnt that "the" is used for specific things, places, ect., but I saw the line "I grew up in the city" on the internet and i'm confused.

By the way is it correct to put a full stop after "ect", THEN put a comma after it, then continue the next part of the sentence? (for example the sentence above)

Answer

Thank you for telling me.

Answer

'The city' here refers to the area covered by any built-up area, as opposed to being a case of  'the' + noun.. You're absolutely right that this use of 'the' is strange logically, but that's because this case is an exception.  "I grew up in a city" is also perfectly correct and natural (as well as logical), but most people would say 'the' instead.

Answer

(

Answer

"." means it's abbreviation. 
&c. =  etc. = et cetera (

Answer

1) 'I grew up in THE city' is correct. Like you said the is used for specific things or places - in this case the city.

2) Yes, you can write ETC. (not ect.) followed by period and comma.