Hi Ardith, long time no talk!
On 28.12.24 23:42:35, you wrote:
Again, as you may surmise, using articles is tricky.
Yes, I`ve noticed over the years that my Russian correspondents
tend to have difficulty with articles in English. Based on what
little I understand of the Russian language I figure I`d have a
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.
I probably own more dictionaries & refer to them more often than
a lot of other people do. I`d like to think I help my readers use
them more efficiently
... but you may not have been here long enough to notice I say on occasion "Did you continue reading as far as definition #12,
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.
If you want to see & hear native speakers saying "would of never"
in our local news or some advertiser telling you the XYZ Company
is best qualified to update your windows because they are "real perfessionals" it certainly does. I don`t rely on these sources
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).
In our case I`d say it`s an "object vs. substance" thing.
(which any dictionary I`d give house room to will probably tell
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.
If you know how how to find material such as the above, I`m most
grateful. :-)
Search engines now make it easier than ever, that's for sure. Some of
us are just sleeping on such an opportunity.
... to you I`d say something more like "You`ve never heard of
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
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