Well, maybe he was an asshole, but in his defence articles are much less optional in French than in English, thus you don't expect it standalone. It basically b

Well, maybe he was an asshole, but in his defence articles are much less optional in French than in English, thus you don't expect it standalone. It basically becomes one word in your consciousness. A bit like if someone asks you for "ater". And when you finally understand, you feel really stupid, because yes ultimately it was just missing a useless article, but it just didn't click.