Articles "The" i

[cheesey]

[cheesey]

uciekl za wczesnie post

Articles "The" i "A" - I heard many times that Slavic people will never
acquire the skills to know where to use the above articles; as there are no
articles in slavic languages.

The ONLY way they can get that feeling for the use, is if they start living in
an English speaking country before their early teenage years.

How many of you are in that lucky category?

[butter_fly]

cheesey napisała:

> uciekl za wczesnie post
>
> Articles "The" i "A" - I heard many times that Slavic people will never
> acquire the skills to know where to use the above articles; as there are no
> articles in slavic languages.
>
> The ONLY way they can get that feeling for the use, is if they start living
in
> an English speaking country before their early teenage years.
>
> How many of you are in that lucky category?

Not me:(( but there is a perfect teacher - he's called erwas - find him, learn
from him and pay him well;)

[Gość: xman]

Most of the native speakers I have met did not care that much. Indeed, they had
a good sense of use, but only in the few basic aspects. The more sophisticated
examples left them helpless.
My hint: get a good command of the basic rules and hell with the rest...

[Gość: ryk]

Gość portalu: xman napisał(a):

> Most of the native speakers I have met did not care that much. Indeed, they
had a good sense of use, but only in the few basic aspects.

Nonsense.
Besides, aspect is a daft term.

>The more sophisticated examples left them helpless.

That's a crock.

> My hint: get a good command of the basic rules...

You must know where the basic rules end and advanced begin then.
That's how "the" operates. Get going, bumbler, tell us the borderline.

> ...and hell with the rest...

...the hell with the rest or to hell with the rest.
Is your article problem fundamental or advanced?

[Gość: xman]

> Nonsense.
> Besides, aspect is a daft term.
Nonsense is a much dafter one
and - go ahead - prove it's not :-P
> That's a crock.
You do seem to have mastered the one-syllable dictionary of slang, sections C-D.
I'm impressed.

> ...the hell with the rest or to hell with the rest.
I'll let you have a wild guess :)

> Is your article problem blah-blah-blah....
Doesn't matter. It's MINE, so mind your own business. If I need a shrink I'm
sure it'll be enough to write here a line and you'll pop up.

[Gość: steph]

xman is right, majority of people do not give a toss; like most of grammar,
it's not taught at English schools at any stage of education; with time, one
develops an instinct when to apply them, with no serious consideration for any
theories and it seems to work. Admittedly, rather hard for a learner in a non-
English speaking environment.

[pranie]

O no, the incorrect use of the above articles IS considered a mistake.
One can get away with it when speaking(as it is not as noticeable when one
speaks quickly) but in writing it is very obvious that the person has no
feeling where(and which) the article should be put.

If you work in an office environment this could be a hindrance as far as
promotions are concerned. No employer wants to hire staff whose written skills
are not reasonable. For labourers does not matter.

[spiaca_krolevvna]

Not knowing if or which article to use is considered a big grammatical mistake.

[ampolion]

Read the papers nd see what they write...

[pranie]

ampolion napisał:

> Read the papers nd see what they write...

Yeah, there are all kinds of papers; but those reputable ones have impeccable
English. Which ones do you read.....?

[deadeasy]

> If you work in an office environment this could be a hindrance as far as
> promotions are concerned. No employer wants to hire staff whose written
skills
> are not reasonable. For labourers does not matter.

Not true. Some of the people "well above me" do not know how to use "a"
and "an" for example. Their writing and communication skills are worse than
mine. They are all "born British" ;)

Sometimes, without knowing the context it's hard to determine if a sentence is
right or wrong (the v. a).

"The" v. "a" is one of my language problems. However, I work in an office.
I "managed" to pass through the interview stage and I "am telling you", my
English is far from perfect. I had a chance to attend a few interviews and
never my language skills were the reason for not employing me (lack of other
skills and experience - yes).

Many academics/lecturers are not native speakers and make "terrible" mistakes.
However, this does not stop universities from employing them.

I am not saying that one can get a job without any command of English, but if
one's *only* problem is mixing "the" with "a/an" I would say their language
skills are "reasonable".
:)

[Gość: xman]

Well,...
Firstly, I am not saying you shouldn't worry about the articles at all. Once
you have understood the idea of their usage an occasional misuse will not
matter. Example: sometimes people use THE although only they know what they're
talking about.
Secondly, people (usually teachers or hard learners) make too much fuss about
articles in general.
Finally, the more you use the language (preferably in an English-speaking
environment) the less mistakes you make.

[pranie]

<Not true. Some of the people "well above me" do not know how to use "a"
and "an" for example>.

"A" and "an" - is a different matter. It's just their lazy way of using
English. The rule is pretty simple and once explained they would have no
problem using it correctly.


<Their writing and communication skills are worse than
mine. They are all "born British" ;)>
I don't know your skills generally, bu here the topic is about articles.
Natives always will be better than you in articles.



"The" v. "a" is one of my language problems. However, I work in an office.
I "managed" to pass through the interview stage and I "am telling you", my
English is far from perfect. I had a chance to attend a few interviews and
never my language skills were the reason for not employing me (lack of other
skills and experience - yes).>

Depends what kind of work you do. Obviously nothing too "complicated".



<Many academics/lecturers are not native speakers and make "terrible" mistakes.
However, this does not stop universities from employing them>.

The above people are experts in certain fields, so are often forgiven
and their work can be corrected by their secretaries(who know English well).

[deadeasy]

>Depends what kind of work you do. Obviously nothing too "complicated".

You are very opinionated on subjects you obviously know nothing about. This is
not often perceived by many to be a sign of great wisdom.

[cheesey]

I have been speaking English since my early childhood and
agree with pranie.

[Gość: xman]

How about your use? Do you think you've got it all right?

[Gość: paula]

I wonder why you call young people living in the UK 'lucky category'?
Personally, I prefer living in Poland though my articles will never be perfect!
and... leave it that way!

[cheesey]

Gość portalu: paula napisał(a):

> I wonder why you call young people living in the UK 'lucky category'?
> Personally, I prefer living in Poland though my articles will never be
perfect!
> and... leave it that way!

ha??? What are you on about? Perhaps you should read the topic again,
or you do not understand English

[Gość: Venus]

I too have problems with these damn articles.
perhaps this will help:

owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/esl/eslart.html
Venus