Thread: question

Which is correct: "The envelope of air surrounding the Earth is at least 50 miles thick" or "An envelope of air surrounding the Earth is at least 50 miles thick"?
BTW How to translate Это правильно? Is this correct? Is this right? - Is there any difference?

You can say either;
The envelope of air surrounding the earth is at least fifty miles thick.
or
There is an envelope of air surrounding the earth that is at least fifty miles thick.


I believe the translation =Is this correct?

JB is perfectly correct But you do generally hear people saying "is this right" when they really mean "is this correct." It's slangy but it's more than accepted, it's expected. So either one is okay, at least in casual speech.

Thank you. And more: Plains called coastal plains lie on continental borders
or The plains called coastal plains lie on the continental borders

I would say:

Plains, called "coastal plains," lie on the continental borders.

unless you have previously discussed the plains, in which case you should say:

The plains, called "coastal plains," lie on the continental borders.

The problem I think you are describing is one of articles (the, a, an). It is a common problem because russian does not use these articles. The easiest way i can describe it is, for example:

The apple (a particular apple, or if there is only one apple)
An apple (any apple if there are many)

So both are correct, but it depends on context

hope this helps

Good grief Marina, what are you writing? Is this a school assignment?

Originally Posted by Линдзи

I would say:

Plains, called "coastal plains," lie on the continental borders.

unless you have previously discussed the plains, in which case you should say:

The plains, called "coastal plains," lie on the continental borders.

Repeating the word plains is rather redundant. Wouldn't it be simpler just to write

Coastal plains lie along the continental borders.

No, it wouldn't. The matter is it was a sentence from an exercise-book to translate.
I study English and I thank you for help

Can it be so: "Plains, which are called "coastal", lie on the continental borders"?

Not really. The complete sentence should not have quote marks, and "coastal" alone is a little vague. The ladybug (is it Linda ?) had it right.

thats just mho, in any case translation is not taking a sentence in replacing in it all the words with their target language equivalents, every sentence conveys or at least is supposed to convey an idea or create an impression or feeling in those who read/hear it, translation is trying to do the same in another language, convey the same idea or create the same impression or feeling, so whats the idea of your snetence? the idea is that there is a category of plains that have a special name coastal plains, and they lie on the continental border, plains that are not coastal plain dont lie on the continental border, so there are different forms your translated sentence can take, coastal plains are those that lie ont he continetnal border, plains that are called coastal lie on the continnetal border, think abt the idea or what your source sentence is meant to convey rather than abt how the words in it run together

Since this is a school assignment I believe it should be grammatically correct.