Tai yuan is just one of [the] many cities in Shanxi.

[Silverobama]

I was told by a native speaker that the "the" is not needed in the following sentence written by myself, but I think it's optional. May I have your opinion?

Tai yuan is just one of the many cities in Shanxi.

 

[tedmc]

I agree with you. The dropping of the indefinite article as in other cases does not follow convention though.
The city is written as one word -"Taiyuan".

 

[Silverobama]

The dropping of the indefinite article as in other cases does not follow convention though.

I think “indefinite articles” refers to “a” or “an”, am I right? Could you please give me an example of your utterance?

 

[tedmc]

Oops...I mean the definite article.

 

[emsr2d2]

I was told by a native speaker that the "the" is not needed in the following sentence, which was written by myself me, but I think it's optional. May I have your opinion?

Taiyuan is just one of the many cities in Shanxi.

You're right. It's optional.

I think “indefinite articles” refers to “a” or “an”. Am I right? Could you please give me an example? of your utterance?

You had a comma splice in the original. Note that most dialects of English rarely use the word "utterance".

 

[jutfrank]

I was told by a native speaker that the "the" is not needed in the following sentence written by myself, but I think it's optional. May I have your opinion?

Tai yuan is just one of the many cities in Shanxi.

In a sense, you're both right. Grammatically, yes, it's not needed, and yes, it's optional. Both versions of the sentence, with and without, are grammatical.

But whether it really is needed or optional within its proper context is impossible to say, since we don't have any context.

 

[jutfrank]

The dropping of the indefinite article as in other cases does not follow convention though.

Convention? What convention are you referring to?

 

[jutfrank]

Note that most dialects of English rarely use the word "utterance".

It's an academic word, not a dialect word. In linguistics, it's a piece of spoken, written, or even gestured language that's produced by a user, as distinct from a sentence.

 

[emsr2d2]

It's an academic word, not a dialect word. In linguistics, it's a piece of spoken, written, or even gestured language that's produced by a user, as distinct form a sentence.

Sorry. I meant "variants", not "dialects". I need more sleep!

 

[Skrej]

While I also agree it's optional, my preference is actually to include it. That being said, I doubt I'd even notice someone choosing to omit it.