The
British Council (2006) found that 375 million individuals speak English
as a first language, another 375 million as a second language, and 750
million as a foreign language. That amounts to about 1.5 billion, or
one-fifth of the world’s population. Clearly proficiency in English is
of increasing importance.
In the course of our work at Polished Paper, we see a lot of writing
from non-native speakers of English. In fact, we have regular customers
on every continent! Well, except for Antarctica. That has allowed us to
note a few common problem areas. In this blog entry and others to come,
we’ll look at some basics, important aspects of English to get right so
that you don’t immediately stand out as a non-native English speaker.
We’ll start with definite and indefinite articles. They are important
in English, but a great many languages use neither (198 to be exact). A
couple of major examples are Chinese and Russian. For native speakers
of such languages, understanding the difference between definite and
indefinite articles can pose a challenge.
Let’s start with the difference between
abstract and
concrete nouns.
Abstract nouns are general. They refer to ideas,
feelings, or qualities. Examples include peace, civilization, society,
love, communism, democracy, beauty, and Manifest Destiny.
Concrete nouns are specific. They refer to a person,
place, or thing that you can ‘perceive’ with one of the five senses.
You can see them, smell them, touch them, hear them, and/or taste them.
Examples include sneeze, planet, curry, city, Pyramids, soil, and
vice-president.
So what are the kinds of articles and which do we use with abstract and concrete nouns?
Nouns in English appear 1) with NO article, 2) with the INDEFINITE
article (‘a’ before nouns starting with a consonant, ‘an” before nouns
starting with a vowel), or 3) with the DEFINITE article (‘the’)
.
Basic Rules
1.
Abstract nouns (in their most basic form) do not require an article at all.
Society is a collection of individuals who have common goals and values.
Civilizations come and go.
2.
Concrete nouns can take either “a/an” or “the” in different circumstances. It depends
HOW SPECIFIC the noun is. That is, it depends whether you are talking about
ONE OF MANY or
JUST ONE (no other exists).
Can I have
AN apple? (Any apple is fine.)
Can I have
THE apple on the counter? (I want one specific apple: the apple on the counter. No other apple will do.)
3. We sometimes make abstract nouns less general by adding detail.
When we do that, we use either “a/an” or “the” depending on how specific
we are.
ONE OF MANY
A love that has no conditions is the best.
An idea I like is getting kids to do creative writing in first grade.
JUST ONE
The ancient civilization of Egypt emerged about five thousand years ago.
The democracy of the United States is much different from
the democracy that the Athenians practiced.
Rules for Plural Ideas
1. When you would use ‘a/an’ for a noun in the singular, drop it in the plural.
I want a black horse. (Any black horse is okay.)
With the plural, we still have this idea of
ONE OF MANY. But instead of one member of a single group, we have
one group within
a larger group.
Black horses are my favorite kind. (Out of all horses—white, grey, brown, and black—black horses are my favorite.)
2. When you would not use an article or when you would use ‘the’ for a noun in the singular, do the same for the plural.
Friendship is more important than work.
Friendships are more important than work.
In both cases, these are general, abstracts.
For ‘the’ in the plural, we are still talking about
JUST ONE (only now, we mean
just one group).
The girl who lives next door is pretty. (Of all the girls in the world, there is only one girl that lives next door.)
The girls who live on my street are pretty. (Of all the groups of
girls in the world, there is only one group of girls on my street.)
Blog source:
https://polishedpaper.com/blog/professional-editors-corner-articles
