Quote Originally Posted by bitpicker
As for the first sentence, it should be 'I chose an incorrect word'. Regarding articles, which I suppose are a major problem for native speakers of Russian: you use a definite article (the) when you refer to something specific. For instance: 'maybe the word I chose was incorrect'. This sentence refers to the specific word you chose. In the sentence I suggested I used an indefinite article (a, an) because there isn't just a single incorrect word you could have chosen but any number. 'I chose the incorrect word' technically means that there is just a single incorrect word you could have chosen, and you did.

I hope I am making this clear - if you don't understand, please say so and I'll try harder.

Robin
Your explanation was very clear. Thank you very much.

We have widespread joke in Russia. It is about of “Russian articles”. It is words which are littering our speech. They are “типа” and “вроде”. In English it is “like”, “similar”. Very often you can hear them from young people. If somebody to use them more then need we can ask him/her “Where are you from?” from England or USA? Is “типа” your English article “the”?”

So every time I ask myself “What must I use, “the” or “a (an)” or nothing? It is very difficult. Especially it is difficult to choose between “use articles” and “nothing”. I know that I can say: “I like sea (sugar, sunlight…..)” (at all) and also I can use: “I like the Sea” (if I am telling about Red Sea to a person who knows or guesses what kind of sea I mean). But this question is not always so easy.