Search results for 'tag:Indefinite articles tag:Conversations' matching tags 'Indefinite articles' and 'Conversations'

Looking for some tips and/or curriculum suggestions

mikesusangray — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 21:50:11 GMT

Hi all!

I've been giving English conversation lessons to a theology professor for about a year now. He's getting on in the years - a couple years from retirement - and his primary goal has been just to get his spoken English going a little stronger. His mother tongue is French but he's been teaching at a German language university for many years.

I'd like to add some more specific inputs to our lessons but I can't seem to find the right material. His passive skills are excellent - he reads widely and with perfect comprehension in his field - and he can communicate quite understandably. He is a linguistics specialist and can grasp any concept about the language immediately. I brought along Cambridge Advanced Grammar in Use and he could plow through a chapter in five minutes with perfect conceptual comprehension.

However, he also continues to make very simple errors - for example, he has trouble choosing between present simple and continuous or often uses the present tense for past events. Sentence order tends to get wander hither and yon while definite and indefinite articles come and go with the tide. (Prepositions are a problem too, but I won't beat him to hard there - prepositions are difficult in any new language.) In many cases his mistakes are typical of French or German speech patterns.

One other limitation is that he enjoys the weekly lessons (a good hour), but doesn't have much time to study in between.

Right now we spend about 15 minutes reading a chapter from Advanced Grammar in Use and about 45 minutes talking about just about anything under the sun, while I take notes and show him problems under the categories Pronunciation/Articles & Prespositions/Word Order/Other Grammar/Vocabulary/Idioms. However, I don't think the work book is a good choice - particularly since he doesn't do the homework - and it seems like he isn't making very good progress with his typical problem patterns - though he greets them like old friends when I point them out.

Any tips here?

Re: article

Feebs11 — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 23:45:48 GMT

Anonymous
Thank you.
You said:

Usually when we introduce a common noun into a conversation for the first time we use the indefinite article, then when we refer back to that item/person/etc. we use the definite.

Does it apply to what seems to be a common noun used a game instruction section like as in "... pick one person to be 'Volcano'"?? What do quotation marks around a common noun mean to you in this type of writing? I wish for the best possible answer.

"Volcano" is presumably the name or title of that player, so it is indicating that this is a name and not an exploding mountain. You would not put an article before it unless there are more than one players with the name/title (as was indicated further onin the passage above),

Re: article

Huevos — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 13:34:08 GMT

Usually when we introduce a common noun into a conversation for the first time we use the indefinite article, then when we refer back to that item/person/etc. we use the definite.

There was a man. The man was eating an apple. Although the apple appeared fresh it contained a worm. The worm infected the man with a virus. The virus was poisonous and caused the man to die.

Re: Puzzle about the pronunciation of the word 'THE'

Mister Micawber — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 13:22:23 GMT

.
Hello Mathew, and welcome to English Forums.

The 2 pronunciations of 'the' are not grammar rules, but physical effects of the smooth flow of sounds between words-- they are more like laws of physics. Native speakers (lucky us!) do not have to affirm pronunciations-- we just talk without thinking. However, I can tell you that in the native mind, the definite and indefinite articles are mostly already attached to their nouns, so that they are conceived and produced with a single thought. This kind of conversation is common:

A: I see you've got a pear for lunch.
B: A what?
A: A pear.
B: Oh no, that's the apple you gave me this morning.
A; The what?
B: The apple-- you remember?

Re: meaning of

Delmobile — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 22:01:18 GMT

I've heard the word with the indefinite article: "she went off on a tangent."

In geometry, a tangent is something that touches, but does not intersect, another figure. In conversation, a tangent is something touching, but not really pertaining to, the subject being discussed.

For example, I could go off on a "random tangent" right now and tell you my son's geometry teacher had a baby last month, and that the baby was premature and had to stay in the hospital for three weeks before it could come home...

Re: kitchen

CalifJim — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 07:35:04 GMT

This is not a matter of "kitchen (or any other noun) must always take the article the", or a matter of "kitchen (or any other noun) must always take the article a".

The articles are used in specific situations. Some situations require the indefinite article (a or an); some situations require the definite article (the). There are also situations in which either of these or no article at all might be preferable.

You cannot learn the usage of articles by memorizing hundreds of rules about articles. You must learn how to feel the meaning of the articles. Maybe the following explanation will help.

In the case of

Inside the house was a small kitchen.

we imagine ourselves outside the house. We may be thousands of miles away. We are simply describing something we saw. The house had a kitchen, a dining room, a bedroom, etc. We are speaking of the existence of those things which made up the parts of that house. We are saying that the house had something we call kitchen, something we call dining room, something we call bedroom, etc. We are saying that the house contained an example of the thing we call kitchen, an example of the thing we call dining room, etc.

In the case of

She went into the kitchen.

we imagine ourselves inside the house. When we hear someone speak of the kitchen, we know that some particular kitchen is being referred to. If this is the first time kitchen has been used in the conversation, we expect people to say a kitchen, so we know there must be a good reason they said the kitchen. When they say the kitchen, they are saying, "You don't have to ask me which kitchen. You have enough information to determine that by yourself". So now we have to look around and see what they mean, and we deduce from logic that the kitchen must mean the only kitchen that there is in this house that we are in. It is not at all a question that she went into an example of something we call kitchen!

You may need to think about this for a while. The exact meanings of the articles and their uses are not easy. You won't learn everything about them in one day!

CJ

Re: Why indefinite articles?

Clive — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 01:24:43 GMT

Hi,

Let me try a different kind of explanation. The first time you mention something to me, say 'a'. That makes the thing specific/definite in our conversation. So thereafter, you can say 'the' and I'll know the thing you are talking about.

A man with a scar on his nose and a parrot sitting on his shoulder came into the room. The man sat down. The man smiled at me.

Best wishes, Clive

Re: Could you check these sentences, please?

Clive — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 01:19:50 GMT

Hi again,

The only thing I didn't understand is #5. That list always consists of the four directions, so why is the indefinite article correct?

A similar example:
Â«Can I have a list of the people you have called today?Â»

Can you explain such situations? What is meant by "list" is quite a certain thing here...

A man with a scar on his nose and a parrot sitting on his shoulder came into the room. The man sat down. The man smiled at me.

Best wishes, Clive

Re: Some questions

Clive — Mon, 08 May 2006 00:46:42 GMT

Hi,

1. Are these sentences with (or without) articles OK?

Is a mushroom animal or vegetable? OK

Is the mushroom an animal or a vegetable? OK, but I prefer it without the indefinite articles.

Is this mushroom an animal or a vegetable? OK

2. What is the difference among the following sentences?

What did you do on the weekend?

What did you do last weekend?

Usually, the above two mean the same thing. However, #1 could be referring, for example, to some week last year that is the subject of your conversation.

What did you do over the weekend? The 'over' encompasses the whole weekend, so a fuller anser is required.

Best wishes, Clive

Re: In / On

Mister Micawber — Sun, 19 Sep 2004 13:42:30 GMT

Actually, Demi, mine is more 'bookish' (formal) than your version, which is more common in conversation and informal writing. 'There' and 'it' as preparatory subjects do just that: prepare the listener, attracting his/her attention to the rest of the utterance, just as we often say 'hey!' to get a listener's attention before giving them the gist of the matter.

'There' as a preparatory subject is particularly used with subjects 'that have indefinite articles, no article, or indefinite determiners like some, any, no; and with indefinite pronouns like somebody, nothing'-- according to Practical English Usage (Swan).