a window, a wall, a door, etc. But why ''the floor''?
Is it an uncountable noun? Can I never say ''a floor''?
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a window, a wall, a door, etc. But why ''the floor''?
Is it an uncountable noun? Can I never say ''a floor''?
A - You're putting in a new floor?Quote:
Originally Posted by Lena.from.Russia
B - Yes we're putting in a floor.
Scott
I was told that when you are talking about something not for the first time you should use the definite article.Quote:
Originally Posted by fortheether
A- You're putting in a new floor?
B - Yes we're putting in ''the'' floor.
because we are talking about the definite floor. Or am I mistaken?
This dialogue does not sound very natural because the important information inquired about by A is "new". There was a floor before the one being currently put in. Nobody would say "we're putting in the floor" here because it makes it sound as if there hadn't been a floor there in the first place. On the other hand, A could enquire "What are you going to do next?" and B could reply "We are going to put the floor in next" - here you have a first mention with a definite article because a room only has one floor and the type of floor is not important.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lena.from.Russia
To tell you the truth, I never noticed how damn difficult the correct usage of articles is before I met Russians trying to come to terms with the concept. :) No matter how hard I try to explain all the shades of meaning conveyed by the articles, I never seem to be able to define them fully and clearly. You have my sympathies. :)
:D Thanks Robin. It's really hard for Russian people to use these 'a'/'the' articles because we have no articles in Russian as I am sure you know. Yes, I thought that a room has only one floor and that's why the floor is used. But what if the room has also one window but we say 'a window'? :)Quote:
Originally Posted by bitpicker
I just had a list of words - a window, a door, a plant, etc. and the floor was the only word that was used with the definite article. Maybe because we can say windows, plants, doors, etc. and I am not sure we can say floors in plural?
Floors in plural would usually refer to different levels in a house. 1st floor, 2nd floor etc. I suppose that a definite article was used because rooms tend to have just one floor. Probably the same would have occured with "ceiling".
The room has a window - this means that there is a single window in the room.
The room has windows - obviously more than one.
The room has windows facing towards the beach - more than one, and more than one facing towards the beach, but possibly others facing elsewhere.
The window in the room faces towards the beach - in this case you state that there is just one window, and it faces towards the beach.
A window in the room faces towards the beach - here we can be sure that there are more windows, but none of the others face towards the beach.
Not possible: An only window in the room faces towards the beach. You can't use "an" and "only" here at the same time. It's a contradiction: "An" implies more than one, and "only" puts the number at exactly one.
Not possible: The room has the window. You would expect some additional property to define this specific window as a reason for the article.
Спасибо, Robin!