Subj : Re: Wall To : Ardith Hinton From : Gleb Hlebov Date : Mon Dec 30 2024 19:40:28 Hi Ardith, long time no talk! On 28.12.24 23:42:35, you wrote: GH>> Again, as you may surmise, using articles is tricky. AH> Yes, I`ve noticed over the years that my Russian correspondents AH> tend to have difficulty with articles in English. Based on what AH> little I understand of the Russian language I figure I`d have a AH> very similar problem there.... :-) Absolutely! Articles as a concept are non-existent in some languages, and for many learners it's quite hard to get their mind around them. Language and mentality barriers do exist, unfortunately. Things do get lost in translation. I believe it may not be as bad for us English tutees as for you English speakers who, for whatever reason, would want to start learning Russian just to make a terrifying discovery of nearly 70 various inflection forms (AFAIK) they'd have to learn, or memorize. AH> I probably own more dictionaries & refer to them more often than AH> a lot of other people do. I`d like to think I help my readers use AH> them more efficiently AH> ... but you may not have been here long enough to notice I say on AH> occasion "Did you continue reading as far as definition #12, AH> where I found the answer?" :-)) Dictionaries are indispensable, I have nothing against them whatsoever :-) In our case, as far as the subject is concerned, is it correct to assume that a countable noun may be allowed to exist in the story without an article attached to it? Or, on the other hand, a "strictly" uncountable noun may be used with the indef. article in a number of cases? It seems one can't tell by simply looking it up in a dictionary. AH> If you want to see & hear native speakers saying "would of never" AH> in our local news or some advertiser telling you the XYZ Company AH> is best qualified to update your windows because they are "real AH> perfessionals" it certainly does. I don`t rely on these sources AH> for examples of good English usage... Would of never... Well, I've had my share of those, and Could-of-been's too, reading various posts on forums/boards back in the day. I even remember asking somewhere, "I wonder if this could be a contemporary acceptable form of writing it?" :-) As with that XYZ company, maybe they're just good average IT professionals, not perfectionists? That is, if you mean "Windows" the OS, I assume, not windows in the house. (Are those even "updatable"?) We have to admit, not any source is reliable in this regard. And as a side note, I've been listening to a great song earlier today, and it's titled "Shoulda": "I shoulda let go... bla-bla... etc." (It's British BTW). GH>> In our case I`d say it`s an "object vs. substance" thing. AH> (which any dictionary I`d give house room to will probably tell AH> you) Nice one! :-) "...give house room to" is not about "a room in the house", but "room" as in "Make room!", right? House room = house space. AH> If you know how how to find material such as the above, I`m most AH> grateful. :-) Search engines now make it easier than ever, that's for sure. Some of us are just sleeping on such an opportunity. AH> ... to you I`d say something more like "You`ve never heard of AH> Hadrian`s Wall?" :-Q I think I haven't until just now, but Hadrian is/was a proper noun (thus no articles needed)? Anyway, given its present condition, shouldn't it be more aptly termed "The leftovers of Hadrian's Wall"? -- "Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." -- Albert Einstein --- InterSquish NNTP Server/FTN Gate * Origin: www.wfido.ru (2:5023/24.4222) .