4 ms·

There are equivalent articles in Chinese. a -> yige "一个" the -> zhege "这个"/ nage "那个＂ And of course words like "my", "our" which are used in place of article

There are equivalent articles in Chinese. a -> yige "一个" the -> zhege "这个"/ nage "那个＂ And of course words like "my", "our" which are used in place of articles are there as well. You might not need the articles when the context is very clear (which causes problems for Chinese speakers when they try to learn English), but the concept is there. I believe it's the same in Japanese. Can't comment on other languages though.

microcolonel 8y ago
> I believe it's the same in Japanese. Can't comment on other languages though. English is quite varied; takes similarly to eliding subjects, at times.
umanwizard 8y ago
Don’t those mean “this” and “that” ? “This”, “that”, and “the” are similar because they’re all determiners that express definite ness (whereas “a” is a determiner that expresses indefiniteness), but mean something clearly different in English.
- gpderetta 8y ago
  FWIW, in Italian, and I think other romance languages, definite aricles come from the words used for 'this' although evolved to something district.
yongjik 8y ago
I'm sure there are Chinese words that can serve the same purpose. The point is that they aren't mandatory. So, to an English learner coming from these languages, a sentence like "I was cleaning attic and found book" is perfectly understandable. Exactly what attic and what book we're talking about should be apparent from context. On the other hand, in actual English, "I was cleaning the attic and found a book" portrays a different picture from "I was cleaning an attic and found the book." Use one when the other is warranted, and it sounds weird and confusing.
- nerdponx 8y ago
  Interestingly, Latin also lacked both "a" and "the", whereas their equivalents appear in Romance languages more than in English.
  - zapzupnz 8y ago
    A consequence of the Romance languages simplifying/removing declensions, I suspect.
- burfog 8y ago
  But then we have "I was cleaning house and found Kevin." too. Both "a Kevin" and "the Kevin" would feel weird, especially "the Kevin". One might do it on purpose as a sort of joke, implying that Kevin is an ordinary inanimate object. More oddness is that "cleaning up" doesn't involve an "up".
  - Declanomous 8y ago
    "You'll never guess who I saw?" "Who?" "Elvis" "Elvis? The Elvis or a Elvis?" "The Elvis" The doesn't imply someone is inanimate, it just means that they are a specific one.
HuShifang 8y ago
这个 / これ mean more "this" whereas 那个 / それ or あれ mean more "that" (with a finer distinction in the Japanese). Their meanings are relative to the speaker - there is no absolute definite article. (I'll say too, even these relative specifiers were seldom used in classical Chinese.)

microcolonel 8y ago

> I believe it's the same in Japanese. Can't comment on other languages though. English is quite varied; takes similarly to eliding subjects, at times.

umanwizard 8y ago

Don’t those mean “this” and “that” ? “This”, “that”, and “the” are similar because they’re all determiners that express definite ness (whereas “a” is a determiner that expresses indefiniteness), but mean something clearly different in English.

gpderetta 8y ago
FWIW, in Italian, and I think other romance languages, definite aricles come from the words used for 'this' although evolved to something district.

yongjik 8y ago

I'm sure there are Chinese words that can serve the same purpose. The point is that they aren't mandatory. So, to an English learner coming from these languages, a sentence like "I was cleaning attic and found book" is perfectly understandable. Exactly what attic and what book we're talking about should be apparent from context. On the other hand, in actual English, "I was cleaning the attic and found a book" portrays a different picture from "I was cleaning an attic and found the book." Use one when the other is warranted, and it sounds weird and confusing.

nerdponx 8y ago
Interestingly, Latin also lacked both "a" and "the", whereas their equivalents appear in Romance languages more than in English.
- zapzupnz 8y ago
  A consequence of the Romance languages simplifying/removing declensions, I suspect.
burfog 8y ago
But then we have "I was cleaning house and found Kevin." too. Both "a Kevin" and "the Kevin" would feel weird, especially "the Kevin". One might do it on purpose as a sort of joke, implying that Kevin is an ordinary inanimate object. More oddness is that "cleaning up" doesn't involve an "up".
- Declanomous 8y ago
  "You'll never guess who I saw?" "Who?" "Elvis" "Elvis? The Elvis or a Elvis?" "The Elvis" The doesn't imply someone is inanimate, it just means that they are a specific one.

HuShifang 8y ago

这个 / これ mean more "this" whereas 那个 / それ or あれ mean more "that" (with a finer distinction in the Japanese). Their meanings are relative to the speaker - there is no absolute definite article. (I'll say too, even these relative specifiers were seldom used in classical Chinese.)