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Why is the English article such a problem?by: Marilyn Owen (23 October 2014)Recently, a colleague pointed out that one of the most common problems that he encounters while proofreading students' theses is the lack of both the definite and the indefinite article (the and a). However, there is a very understandable reason as to why overseas students find it so difficult to know where to place the article in an English sentence. It is that in so many non-European languages, there is no article! It is not easy for speakers of languages that do not have a separate article to know, in every case, when to insert the or a before a noun. Below are some very brief rules:
There are, in fact, 198 languages, which do not take a separate definite article. These include oriental languages such as Mandarin, Thai and Japanese, most Slavic languages such as Russian, Polish, Czech, Lithuanian and Latvian, as well as Farsi, Tamil, Latin and the ancient language Sanskrit.
Here are some other useful points to remember: Meanwhile, our job as proofreaders and editors is to dutifully insert articles into sentences written by our overseas students! For more see Uses of articles and WALS Feature 37A: Definite Articles TweetViews: 3607 Other articles on Punctuation, spelling and grammar and Proofreading |
Some related articlesHow Waitrose used the grocer's apostrophe Both parents should influence the choice of schoolwear SPECTRE: why is the title of the new Bond film in capitals? |
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