Thread: Is it bad joke? Or...

Here is a Russian article, and here is an original American site. I'm shocked... Have you heard of this?

"a Russian article" this means you have found more than one and are showing us one of them.

"an original American site" this is wrong, there is only one, hence "the original site" is correct.

It is a joke. Someone has way too much free time on their hands.

I was raised in one of those cages. Several, actually, as I grew, my parents bought bigger ones. But I'm not bitter, because I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to Geico!!!!

-Fantom

ps- It's completely fake. If you go to the "order" page, you only submit your name and address. If you go to the "contact us" page, it goes to Gmail.com

Looks like something you would hear on a GTA radio station. Kinda reminds me http://www.Petsovernight.com

Originally Posted by Dogboy182

Looks like something you would hear on a GTA radio station.

GTA radio ads were a riot :P. (Yeah, it is off-topic, I know, I know)

Originally Posted by chaika

"a Russian article" this means you have found more than one and are showing us one of them.

"an original American site" this is wrong, there is only one, hence "the original site" is correct.

It is a joke. Someone has way too much free time on their hands.

Thank you very much for your correction! Articles are so hard for me

So is it worth putting you children in cages?

Originally Posted by chaika

"a Russian article" this means you have found more than one and are showing us one of them.

"an original American site" this is wrong, there is only one, hence "the original site" is correct.

А нас в школе тщательно обманывали, что при вводе в разговор новой темы используется неопределенный артикль.

Originally Posted by Rtyom

So is it worth putting you children in cages?

I think most people that practice this plan on being dead before their children eventually evolve into the homocidal maniacs they are bound to become... But if they aren't... Whoops!
-Fantom

Originally Posted by Indra

Originally Posted by chaika

"a Russian article" this means you have found more than one and are showing us one of them.

"an original American site" this is wrong, there is only one, hence "the original site" is correct.

А нас в школе тщательно обманывали, что при вводе в разговор новой темы используется неопределенный артикль.

Немножко об этом:

...В этой ситуации чрезвычайно важно знать, когда использовать the, а когда a или an. По сути дела, мы используем the, когда мы полагаем, что наш слушатель будет в состоянии представить себе тот предмет (лицо, ситуацию), о котором мы собираемся поговорить, - независимо от того, упоминали ли мы о нём ранее. В противном случае следует использовать a или an (если мы говорим о каком-то одном предмете, используя при этом исчисляемое существительное...

Rtyom, interesting quote - but wrong, unfortunately. If I am going to tell you something about the Communist Party, I will not use "a" because there is only one of them, regardless of whether you know it or not. How about ... about the military, about the design of the Russian flag, about the North Pole. When you use "the" you assume that your listener will understand you - and he will! You can use "a" with these nouns, but you will be conveying the information that there is more than one of them (and there may well be several).

Hope that helps.

Если уж начинать, то с самого начала

(The???) articles are a(???) great mystery to us (the???) Slavs

Can you please correct this sentence.

As for "Here is a/the Russian article"- we know nothing about it from the beginning, don't we?
In the form "I've come (I came??) across a Russian article...", is it correct to use the indefinite article?

Originally Posted by chaika

Rtyom, interesting quote - but wrong, unfortunately. If I am going to tell you something about the Communist Party, I will not use "a" because there is only one of them, regardless of whether you know it or not. How about ... about the military, about the design of the Russian flag, about the North Pole. When you use "the" you assume that your listener will understand you - and he will! You can use "a" with these nouns, but you will be conveying the information that there is more than one of them (and there may well be several).

Hope that helps.

I suppose you speak of other rules, the one concerning proper names, the one concerning collective nouns, etc. There are rules and exceptions. Maybe I quoted too little or put it a bit unclear, but this is the part of the text of the book about articles written in England by linguists.

Originally Posted by Indra

Если уж начинать, то с самого начала

(The???) articles are a(???) great mystery to us (the???) Slavs

Can you please correct this sentence.

As for "Here is a/the Russian article"- we know nothing about it from the beginning, don't we?
In the form "I've come (I came??) across a Russian article...", is it correct to use the indefinite article?

(The) articles are a great mystery to us Slavs.

можно с "the" или без...

Originally Posted by kalinka_vinnie

(The) articles are a great mystery to us Slavs.

можно с "the" или без...

will it change the meaning?

If you use "the" you will refer these specific articles, the ones we are talking about right now, but if you omit the "the" you will claim that slavs have problems with articles in general.

Originally Posted by Indra

Если уж начинать, то с самого начала

(The???) articles are a(???) great mystery to us (the???) Slavs

Can you please correct this sentence.

As for "Here is a/the Russian article"- we know nothing about it from the beginning, don't we?
In the form "I've come (I came??) across a Russian article...", is it correct to use the indefinite article?

Like KV said, I think the first 'the' is optional. I probably wouldn't include it. No it doesn't change the meaning in this context. If we were talking about magazine articles, there would be a difference, the one with 'the' reflecting on particular magazine articles, and the one without 'the' reflecting on all magazine articles. Since definite and indefinite articles are less tangible, it's harder to make that kind of distinction.

Your other sentences are right. For what it's worth, the first part of the original post, 'Here's a Russian article' sounds fine to me. In this context, it merely lacks an implication that only the one Russian article exists, and doesn't imply to me that more than one was found. That is, if it said 'the', it would imply to me that only one exists, not that only one was found.

I converse with several Russian pen-pals over email, and while I've corrected article use many times (not as many times as my endings have been wrong, though), there's only been one or two times that an ommited or incorrect article wasn't obvious to me, or obscured the intended meaning, so I wouldn't worry too much. As you can see from this topic, apparently there are even slight differences in opinion between native speakers.

Thank you for your answers!
What tense is correct here?

"I've come (I came??) across a Russian article..."

I've come. It's more like recently, where "I came" is further in the past. But both would be acceptable.
-Fantom

Oh yeah, i've come!..

Sorry.