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

Re: One of many problems faced by English learners is their own misconceptions.

Avangi — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 23:27:00 GMT

Jackson6612

Avangi
either "learners of the English language," or "English language learners."
Why is article the essential here? There is only one English language. e.g. I'm learning Chinese language these days. Is there any need to specify Chinese language using the? The use of the is justified in sentences as in ''I'm learning the Southern American English dialect nowadays. The article is required in all of these. I honestly have no idea why. My guess is that "language" is the object of the verb "to learn," and would require an article if it were used without "English" as a modifier. To qualify for standing without the article, a "subject of study" must be one of a few very well-established courses. "I'm majoring in Romance Languages at university." Here, Romance Languages is the recognized name of a well-established course of study, as is Chinese. In the case of a dialect, the indefinite article would be used if there were more than one. Avangi
<<One - - is their own misconceptions.>> IMO there should be number agreement here. Possibly, "One - - - is dealing with their own misconceptions."
Yes, there should be number agreement between verb and object. If I followed your suggestion then the sentence would read: One of many problems faced by learners of the English language is that they are dealing with their own misconceptions. Is that what you suggested? That would be fine. I was considering "that they are" to be optional, as the gerund "dealing" may serve by itself as predicate nominative following the being verb "is." Avangi
This is about "learners." You refer back five times with "they." At some point you might remind the reader who "they" are. Eg, "these learners," "the students," something else of your choosing.
Is choosing'' used as a present participle in the above context? I'd say functionally it's a gerund, serving as object of the preposition "of." The other option, "choice," would of course be a noun.
Avangi
<<During the learning process, they should stop taking the machinery of their native tongue for granted.>> As the final sentence of the first paragraph, this seems enigmatic. It's very well phrased, but the meaning is less than obvious (to me.) I feel like I want an additional sentence by way of (=as means of, as a type of) explanation, or clarification. Optionally, you could make your "machinery" image a little easier to connect up.
How can I make the machinery image a little easier to connect up? How did I know you were going to ask me that danged question?? During the learning process they should remind themselves that the machinery of their native tongue was a long time in [the] building and fine-tuning, and they must be willing to devote an equal effort to the new language. (I'm not sure I have your intention right.)
Avangi
In the second paragraph, at first blush (=when first thought of or considered) the antecedent (=a word or phrase which a pronoun refers back to) of "They" would seem to be "English speakers."
Yes, you are right. I will be more careful about such constructions in future.
Avangi
Have you verified that "idiomaticness" is a word? Or is it a "nonce (=occurring, used, or made only once or for a special occasion) word"?
It is a proper word according to the Merriam-Webster's dictionary.

Congratulations on your hard work. - A.

Edit. "Why is the article "the" essential here?"

Re: Please correct my essay thanks my friends!!

26TMNTJG2PG — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 12:28:04 GMT

Dipsik
Could you please explain to me why you didnÂ´t correct the indefinite article before the word kids (second paragraph, first line)?

You are right the 'a' before 'kids' should not be there. I missed out. Thank you. The original poster, please note.

Dipsik
I would also write seriously, instead of the word "serious" you used (the latter is only used in informal English - at least as far as I know...)

The part in question is

"The streets practically were practically flooded but not serious enough to cause a total flooding or some any tragedy" and you have a point here as 'seriously' will be another adverb modifying the verb 'were flooded' but I used the adjective there to be illiptical for 'the floods were not serious enough' to be natural.

Re: Please correct my essay thanks my friends!!

Dipsik — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 11:40:11 GMT

Hi 26TMNTJG2PG,

Could you please explain to me why you didnÂ´t correct the indefinite article before the word kids (second paragraph, first line)?
I would also write seriously, instead of the word "serious" you used (the latter is only used in informal English - at least as far as I know...)

Re: Why indefinite articles?

Ant_222 — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 22:42:27 GMT

«A» anyway:

«This certain cell contains a cat and a few mice.»

(© Nona)

What about this one:
«Every (or this) paragraph contains the first and the last sentences.»

Re: Why indefinite articles?

Believer — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 21:54:26 GMT

Thank you Nona and Jim.

The thrust?? of my inquiry lies with the article usage with such terms as "beginning" and "ending." Whenever I see a word preceded with such a term, instinctively I try to put the article "the" unless my close scrutiny shows it otherwise. I think my confusion is being further fueled by the fact that we normally associate a with the concept of one, in addition to the notion of it being an indefiite article, and when I see the sentence like the one below, it having a makes me concentrate too much on the "one" concept. Help me to set what seems to be a misguided perception straight.

The essay contains a/the beginnig paragraph, a/the middle paragraph, and an/the ending paragraph.

Let me tweak it a little and ask you this way. How is this sentence in this context different from the one above?

A teacher has a packet of papers to grade. Among the papers are the best paper, the second best paper and the worst paper.

Here, even an item in the list is being introduced for the first time, it is still being modified with the definite article the. What's your thought on this.

Re: Why indefinite articles?

CalifJim — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 16:28:44 GMT

When introducing the contents of something, the parts of something, or listing the components of something for the first time, we use the indefinite. That's because we are not referring back to each particular element of the list as a particular, unique object in the universe. We are only giving a generic idea of certain types of things.

Next to the plate were a knife, a fork, and a spoon. (No particular knife, fork, or spoon mentioned earlier.)
The refrigerator contained a bottle of milk and a stick of butter. (Etc.)
There was a paragraph at the beginning of the essay, a paragraph in the middle of the essay, and a paragraph at the end of the essay.
Inside the house was a small kitchen. (No particular kitchen mentioned earlier.)
The letter contains a reference to the prime suspect in the case.
This box contains a key and a paper clip.
The menu had a grouping for fish dishes, a grouping for chicken dishes, and a grouping for beef dishes.

CJ

Re: Why indefinite articles?

Maple — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 15:36:23 GMT

Could it help a little to read it this way?

This essay, just like many other short literary compositions, contains a beginning paragraph, a middle paragraph and an ending paragraph.

Re: Why indefinite articles?

Inchoateknowledge — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 14:57:48 GMT

This is all very well, but begining paragraphs there are many.
The begining paragraph of each law in the civil code.

Why indefinite articles?

Believer — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 14:51:29 GMT

Look at the sentence below please and tell me why the writer of this sentence made what looks to be a choice to modify the nouns with an indefinite article.

This essay contain a beginning paragraph, a middle paragraph and an ending paragraph.

Would it be wrong to modify them all with a definite article, like this? I feel very strongly and am pretty sure (Ha ha) that there is only one beginning paragraph, one middle paragraph and one ending paragraph for this particular essay.

This essay contain the beginning paragraph, the middle paragraph, and the ending paragraph.

Re: I have bad punctuation skills:Please help me

LanguageLover — Sun, 10 Jul 2005 11:57:59 GMT

Hi Chintu, welcome to the Forums,

First of all, here is the wrong place for your post . Try to repost it to the writing section where it can get more attention from people who are interested in correcting others' writings. But here are a few hints: try to write your article using the Microsoft "word", the mistakes regarding the space after a comma, period, ... would be underlined along with spelling errors and some basic grammatical errors. You have to pay nore attention to punctuation, articles, word order, paragraph development, .... For example, your sentences are not bound with each other in the way that they should in a paragraph, they seem rather independant from each other.

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You will see that as soon as you invite a few friends to your site, they will in turn invite a few others.

You can easily make new friends by inviting your friends to the site, who in turn invite their own friends, so uou'll have a community of old and new friends after a short time.

Your first step towards successful online business is: A website

You need the indefinite article "a" before "successful", I don't think that you need a colon after "is" to introduce your subject of interest, you can type "website" in a bold, italic, a different font colour,or a bigger font to emphasise.

Do not forget to read your writing before handing it in, you'll get a better result by doing it in a later time. With rereading your writing you can avoid mistakes like the following:

Your online friends can meet you as and when they wish

Good luck with your writings. Don't lose your hope, you can easily overcome these problems by reading a good reference guide to writing, which you won't find it difficult to spot some on the net.

Cheers,