The Minor Parts of Speechpoor, the Russians.
e. Use the with some geographical proper nouns, e.g., the Pacific,
the Philippines, but cf. Spain not *the Spain.
f. Use the in certain date formats, e.g., the 4th of July.
- For each of the following categories of words, determine whether
they do or do not typically occur with the:
a. Names of years, e.g., 1984.
b. Names of professions, e.g., accounting; the law.
c. Names of languages, e.g., English.
d. Names of meals, e.g., brunch.
e. Names of individuals, e.g., Albert.
f. Titles and names together, e.g., President Kennedy. - Here are some rules that are typically given for when to use an
indefinite article. (Remember to use a as the singular indefinite and
either some or no article at all for the plural, e.g., a book, some books,
books.) For each rule, create a short example to illustrate it.
a. Use an indefinite article for the first mention of an entity or enti-
ties in a discourse, e.g., For a soccer fan, few things are as excit-
ing as the World Cup. The surgeon introduced some radioactive
dye into the patient’s arteries. Brain injuries are frequent in
combat [NB no article modifies Brain injuries].
b. Use an indefinite article or no article to classify/categorize, e.g.,
She is a doctor. They are doctors.
c. Use an indefinite article or no article with certain numbers, e.g.,
a hundred, thousands. - English articles pose considerable difficulties from ESL and EFL learn-
ers, at least partly because of the complexity of the English system,
but also because languages differ in whether they have articles at all
(Latin had none), how many articles they have (Irish has only a definite
article), and what information the articles communicate (Spanish and
French articles include information about the number and gender of
the nouns they modify; German articles are marked for gender, case,
and number). The following are texts by learners of English. Examine
each noun phrase in them and discuss any that seem not to be idiomatic
English because of the writer’s choice of definite or indefinite expres-
sion.
a. With the high technology people have taken more information