Search results for 'tag:Definite articles tag:American English' matching tags 'Definite articles' and 'American English'

Re: a historic, an historic

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 18:35:29 GMT

It is all about pronunciation; you must have been taught incorrectly in the '50s. Let's look at a primary source for what's right or wrong in English.

Quoting from the OED:
"There is still some divergence of opinion over the form of the indefinite article to use preceding certain words beginning with h- when the first syllable is unstressed: 'a historical document' or 'an historical document'; 'a hotel' or 'an hotel'. The form depends on whether the initial h is sounded or not: an was common in the 18th and 19th centuries, because the initial h was commonly not pronounced for these words. In standard modern English the norm is for the h to be pronounced in words like hotel and historical, and therefore, the indefinite article a is used; however, the older form, with the silent h and the indefinite article an, is still encountered, especially among older speakers."

There are rare cases in American English where the 'h' is silent, like the word 'honorary'. In that case, it would be appropriate to say 'I received an honorary degree.' But in most other cases, like historical and homeless, we would say, 'I gave charity to a homeless man today' or 'Digging a hole also builds a hill.' Saying these with 'an' instead of 'a' indicates how silly it sounds.

In most cases, like with the word 'historic,' we pronounce the 'h.'

Re: Canadians and their English

Anonymous — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 05:54:21 GMT

General Canadian English is extremely similar to General American English. However, there are a number of differences between the two dialects. Firstly, GCE (General Canadian English) exhibits a linguistic phenomenon called Canadian Raising. Basically, the diphthong âaiâ--as in "by" or "lie"--is raised before voiceless consonants (t, k, p, s, f); by contrast, this diphthong is not raised before other consonants (v, z, d, b, l, m, n, r, etc). Thus, by using Canadian Raising, the words in the following word pairs can be pronounced differently: ride and write, five and fife, and rise and rice.
The diphthong "au," as in "loud," is commonly raised before the consonants "t," "th," "ch," and "s." This diphthong is not raised before the consonants "d," "z," "n," and "j." As was pointed out, the word "about" sounds like "a boat"... well, to American ears, that is. In General American English, the diphthong "ai" is not raised before any consonant, nor is the diphthong "au." Yet, this raising has been occurring in various areas of the U.S., and it has spread quite far.

Another difference between these dialects is that, in GCE, the vowel "o" is always pronounced as "o" before the consonant "r." Therefore, âsorryâ is pronounced sor-ee, âborrowâ is pronounced bor-row, and âsorrow,â sor-row. In General American English, the vowel "o" is sometimes pronounced as the vowel "a"--as in "father"--before the consonant "r." In GAE (General American English), "sorry" is pronounced sar-ee, "borrow" is pronounced bar-row, and âsor-rowâ is pronounced sar-row. This, nevertheless, isn't very common in GAE; in fact, I canât think of any other word that is pronounced with the vowel âa,â other than sorrow, borrow, and sorry.

Many Canadians pronounce the word "marry" as "merry." In GAE, âmarryâ is pronounced with the vowel âae.â

In GCE, "pasta," "mazda," "lava," "drama," âYahooÂ®,â "taco," and other similar words are pronounced with the vowel "ae." In GAE, these words are pronounced with the vowel "a.â In GCE, on the other hand, these and few other foreign words are pronounced with the vowel "a": macho, Guatemala, Bach, and karate. Why is this so? I sure as heck don't know; it's an anomaly.

Of course, let's not forget Canadian lexicon. In Canada, "pop" is universally used as a term for a carbonated beverage. Even in the U.S., "pop" is used quite widely. It's largely used in the Midwest, Upper Midwest, and Northwest. As well, many Canadians refer to candy bars as "chocolate bars."
In GCE, the idioms "in hospital" and "to university" are used, in lieu of the American idioms "in the hospital" and "to the university," which includes a definite article. So, one may say, "I'm going to have my surgery in hospital," or "I'm going to attend university during the fall."

The last letter of the Canadian alphabet, "zed," is different from the last letter of the American alphabet, "zee."

Well, this is pretty much all I know about GCE.

Re: in a hospital ? in hospital ? in the... ?

paco2004 — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 02:58:16 GMT

Hi guys

I have no intention to offend anyone, but the article below is the one I found online. Do you believe this is a true story?

The use of "the" in terms like "going to hospital/the hospital" is usually ascribed to the influence of Irish English on the American language in the 19th century. Before 1870, most of the Irish immigrants to the US had grown up speaking Gaelic, and had adopted English as a second language either in Ireland or after landing in America, a pattern that gradually changed as the Gaelic language gave up ground to English once more Irish acquired a British-mandated school education.

Irish Gaelic did not use any definite article equivalent to "the" to denote generic/specific noun aspects as in English. When speakers of Irish Gaelic switched to speaking English, they tended to confuse this particular grammatical nuance of English.

In Merry Old England this was considered a primitive misuse of the language. In the New World, however, the Irish, among the many immigrant groups, were often construed as "native English speakers" by default, even though many of them were actually secondary speakers of English prior to 1880. Thus the use of "the hospital", based in an irregular form, became accepted in American English.

paco

Re: in a hospital ? in hospital ? in the... ?

Teo — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 12:40:21 GMT

British English, but not American English, usually omits the definite article with university and hospital.

Mrs Anderson has to go to hospital / the hospital for an operation.

[BUT ALWAYS: Where is the hospital?]

We were at university / the university together.

Page 251, A Communicative Grammar of English, by Geoffrey Leech and Jan Svartvik, Pearson Education Limited, 2002

Re: Use of article "the" with places

khoff — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 06:54:56 GMT

Does British English make a distinction between "go to/be in hospital" and "go to/be in the hospital"? My students asked me about use of "go to hospital" and I have never heard this. In American English, we always say "go to the hospital". For example, if you call 911, someone will usually take you "to the hospital" even though you may not necessarily know which one (so why use a definite article?). Patients are described as being "in the hospital" whether we know which one they are in or not. Is there a reason for this?

In British English, they make a distinction between being "in hospital" (as a patient) and "in the hospital" (as a visitor, delivery man, etc.) -- similar to the distinction you described between "going to school" and "going to the school." In the U.S., this same distinction would be made by choosing between "in the hospital" and "at the hospital."

As to why we go to "the grocery store" or "the hospital" rather than "a grocery store" or "a hospital," I have no idea. I think it's just conventional.

Are you a new Anonymous? If so, welcome! It would be nice if you would register; then we could dsitinguish you from all the other Anonymouses. (Anonymice?)

Re: play piano (American English)

Anonymous — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 19:01:01 GMT

Teo wrote:

Is it acceptable in American English to omit the definite article before the musical instrument (For example, play piano/violin/flute/drum ...)?

Thank you very much for your reply.

Yes it is acceptable.

play piano (American English)

Teo — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 16:24:04 GMT

Is it acceptable in American English to omit the definite article before the musical instrument (For example, play piano/violin/flute/drum ...)?

Thank you very much for your reply.

breakfast, a nice breakfast, a breakfast?

Mowgli — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 08:09:32 GMT

Hello,

IÂ´m interested in using the indefinite article with the word "breakfast" and the position of the verb of frequency (in this sentence - never) with "to have breakfast").

I have this sentence. What is possible?:

1) I never have breakfast.

2) I have never breakfast.

3) I never have a breakfast. (A friend of mine says itÂ´s American English if you use a breakfast - without an adjective. - Is it true?)

I would use no article in this case because I know what English Grammer in Use by Murphy says: "We do not normally use the with the names of meals (breakfast, lunch etc.):

What did you have for breakfast?

We had lunch in a very nice restaurant.

But we use a if there is an adjective before breakfast, lunch etc.

We ha a very nice lunch. (not Â´we had very nice lunchÂ´)"

I believe the first sentence (I never have breakfast.) is OK. But what do you think about the others?

Thank you for your answers Mowgli

Several different questions

K48 — Tue, 19 Apr 2005 13:02:39 GMT

1) I haven't *a* or *the* slightest idea? (yes I know it's superlative, but in some cases we may use an indefinite article with superlative degree)
2) *a" nice weather or without any article? (yes I know it's uncountable, but there is a descriptive attribute "nice")
3) "It's *in* a five minutes' walk from here." - Do we always need the preposition in this case?
4) Is "downtown" a word from American English? Can I say, e.g. "it's in the downtown of Chelyabinsk (a city in Russia)?"
5) What word would you prefer: reduction or discount? Is there any difference in meaning or they are just synonyms?

Re: Different pronounciations of the indefinite article "a"?

Guest — Sat, 04 Dec 2004 02:07:51 GMT

great question

I think saying "uh" (or that upside down e sound) is most always going to sound "normal" to American English speakers. But we do use the long a (you spelled it ey) to give a very slightly different meaning.

If I say "I ate "uh" sandwich for lunch", I mean my lunch was a sandwich and not something else for example. If I say "I ate "ey" sandwich for lunch", I mean that today I only had ONE sandwich. (and maybe on other days I have more than one or maybe I wish I had more than one or something of that sort. )

I also think that some people use "ey" more often in more formal settings (I suspect this is a class thing) while other people would think it sounds stiff and awkward. I would have to pay attention to it for a while to figure out the subtle rules of it. I think I am maybe more likely to use "ey" (again, only in formal settings) in front of certain words than others. It may depend on the sound for the word following or it may just be idiomatic.

My suggestion though is to stick with "uh" unless you mean "one".

Of course remember to use "an" in front of words that start with a vowel sound. Aint English awful!