Damn Articles

[Gość: Verdish]

I have problem again. Would you tell me what's the difference in following
sentences? All of them are of general meaning.

A cat is an animal.
The cat is an animal.
Cats are animals.

What about: The cats are animals?

Is all of it the same?

[Gość: ilquad]

"A" means 'some' or 'one', "the" means 'this', 'that', 'these' or 'those'.

[Gość: sikun]

1) some/indefinite cat
2)particular/definite cat
3)cats in general/generic usage
4)doesn't exist
5)no,they dont mean the same:)
pzdr

[tynski]

Gość portalu: Verdish napisał(a):

> I have problem again. Would you tell me what's the difference in following
> sentences? All of them are of general meaning.
>
> A cat is an animal.(yes, generic sense)
> The cat is an animal.(yes, generic sense)
> Cats are animals.(yes, generic sense)

All three convey the same generic sense.

> What about: The cats are animals? (No, "the cats" are specific, particular
cats.)

> Is all of it the same?
Nope, but you got 75% right.

[Gość: gizmo]

What's wrong with what ilquad said? Why complicate life,Mr.IQ?

Verdish, check the following link. That's where you'll find what you're
looking for. www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?
book=Dictionary&va=the&x=16&y=22

(What is the IQ for an imbecil, tynski? You should know, smart ass.)

[chris-joe]

When I was learning English long ago I was using... (you will forgive me for
this:) sets theory in other to fathom the concept of English articles.
The idea of all the following statements is, as it has been said already,
roughly the same. Only the logical connotations vary.

A cat is an animal. (any given cat is an animal)
The cat is an animal. (the whole species of cats is a part of animal kingdom)
Cats are animals. (all cats are animals)


The cats are animals?
Theoretically the statement doesn't make sense because it implies that there are
or may be some cats that are not animals.

But why not? It all depends on the right context. Here's one:

Little Johnny: Mum, look, my room is full of animals. I've got snakes, cats,
dogs, even bears.
Mum: Johnny, but your snakes and dogs and bears are just toys, they are not
real animals.
Little Johnny: And the cats? What about Max and Fluffy?
Mum: THE CATS ARE ANIMALS.

:)))))))

[Gość: Verdish]

Very nice ;-)
thanks all of you
but why so many forms for almost the same meanings?

Since the topic is the articles...

[zegar4]

I don't mean to discourage your illustrative dialog writing, but I think you
should know there are quite a few article flops in your post.
Starting "fathoming the concepts" from scratch would be a good idea, but using
sets theory to figure things out will take you till kingdom come.

[chris-joe]

Touche, but 2 is more like "a couple" than "quite a few" :)

(Touchy!!! :)