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A few things—articles in English (the, a) are subtle as hell and extremely difficult to use correctly if you're not a native speaker. The way you can verb any

A few things—articles in English (the, a) are subtle as hell and extremely difficult to use correctly if you're not a native speaker. The way you can verb any noun is super interesting and productive. And having to memorize the idiomatic different meanings of a billion verb + preposition combinations (take up, take down, take over, take in, take away, take on) is a real treat for learners.

bee_rider 2y ago
The takeaway is: take down “take in.”
scrollaway 2y ago
> articles in English (the, a) are subtle as hell and extremely difficult to use correctly if you're not a native speaker. Found the Slavic speaker ;) The/A construction is similar in most Latin languages. Absolutely agree on the other two features though. It’s kinda crazy and I have no idea how I actually learned those things… they just “happened” into my head. (I’m not a native speaker)
- LudwigNagasena 2y ago
  Articles exist in Romance languages, that’s true, but they are subtly different. You usually wouldn’t say “the Tuesday” in English but you would often say “el martes” in Spanish; “tennis” vs “el tenis”; “I don’t have a car” vs “no tengo coche” and so on.
mjd 2y ago
My Korean tutor said the same thing about “the”. I said “doesn't it just mean there is only one instance?" and he replied "the police". For the benefit of other folks wanting to follow up the "take off" thing: it's called a "phrasal verb".
- egeozcan 2y ago
  Turkish doesn't have article(s) and "the" is usually very confusing when you first start. But then I learned German too...
  - MichaelZuo 2y ago
    How does Turkish handle addressing something like ‘the police’ in sentence structure? (without using anything similar to ‘the’) e.g. ‘The police force has expanded recently in this city.’
    - justsomehnguy 2y ago
      ‘Police force has expanded recently in this city.’
    - egeozcan 2y ago
      Nothing. "Polis (police), son (latest) zamanlarda (times, at) bu (this) şehirde (city, within) faaliyetlerini (operations) arttırdı (increased)." If I'm talking about a specific police officer, then I'd use "o", which means he/she/it/that. O geldi -> he/she/it/that arrived. O polis geldi -> that police arrived. Ona polis geldi -> police arrived to him/her (his/her place). polis geldi -> the police (has) arrived. O bahsettiğin polis geldi -> The police officer you were talking about (has) arrived.
      - justsomehnguy 2y ago
        Ah, yes, many languages do not need to specifically distinguish between 'police' and 'police force'.
      - MichaelZuo 2y ago
        How do you differentiate between the abstract concept of police, the concept of police forces as an organizational unit, and the specific police force that exists within a specific city?
        egeozcan 2y ago
- 3eb7988a1663 2y ago
  I have an ESL colleague (who speaks fantastic English) and she has repeatedly asked me to spellcheck important documents because she is concerned she will "mess up the articles". After she said it, I realized the incredible subtlety in communication that can be expressed by the position/omission of key articles.
- Doxin 2y ago
  I've always been taught that "the" is for when there's a single obvious instance you're talking about. There are many policemen and women, but if I say "the police" there's only really one likely candidate which I could be talking about. "A man" is just some guy. If I say "The man" there's a specific guy I'm talking about and I expect you to know which one. Did you know dutch has two words for "the"? One is generally for big or important things and the other for small or unimportant things. I'm sure people trying to learn Dutch love figuring out which you use when.
bmm6o 2y ago
Not only all the phrasal verbs, but that there is no parallelism across usage. Take up, take down, take off versus break up, break down, break off. Knowing the meaning of some of those doesn't really shed light on the meaning of any others.

bee_rider 2y ago

The takeaway is: take down “take in.”

scrollaway 2y ago

> articles in English (the, a) are subtle as hell and extremely difficult to use correctly if you're not a native speaker. Found the Slavic speaker ;) The/A construction is similar in most Latin languages. Absolutely agree on the other two features though. It’s kinda crazy and I have no idea how I actually learned those things… they just “happened” into my head. (I’m not a native speaker)

LudwigNagasena 2y ago
Articles exist in Romance languages, that’s true, but they are subtly different. You usually wouldn’t say “the Tuesday” in English but you would often say “el martes” in Spanish; “tennis” vs “el tenis”; “I don’t have a car” vs “no tengo coche” and so on.

mjd 2y ago

My Korean tutor said the same thing about “the”. I said “doesn't it just mean there is only one instance?" and he replied "the police". For the benefit of other folks wanting to follow up the "take off" thing: it's called a "phrasal verb".

egeozcan 2y ago
Turkish doesn't have article(s) and "the" is usually very confusing when you first start. But then I learned German too...
- MichaelZuo 2y ago
  How does Turkish handle addressing something like ‘the police’ in sentence structure? (without using anything similar to ‘the’) e.g. ‘The police force has expanded recently in this city.’
  - justsomehnguy 2y ago
    ‘Police force has expanded recently in this city.’
  - egeozcan 2y ago
    Nothing. "Polis (police), son (latest) zamanlarda (times, at) bu (this) şehirde (city, within) faaliyetlerini (operations) arttırdı (increased)." If I'm talking about a specific police officer, then I'd use "o", which means he/she/it/that. O geldi -> he/she/it/that arrived. O polis geldi -> that police arrived. Ona polis geldi -> police arrived to him/her (his/her place). polis geldi -> the police (has) arrived. O bahsettiğin polis geldi -> The police officer you were talking about (has) arrived.
    - justsomehnguy 2y ago
      Ah, yes, many languages do not need to specifically distinguish between 'police' and 'police force'.
    - MichaelZuo 2y ago
      How do you differentiate between the abstract concept of police, the concept of police forces as an organizational unit, and the specific police force that exists within a specific city?
      - egeozcan 2y ago
3eb7988a1663 2y ago
I have an ESL colleague (who speaks fantastic English) and she has repeatedly asked me to spellcheck important documents because she is concerned she will "mess up the articles". After she said it, I realized the incredible subtlety in communication that can be expressed by the position/omission of key articles.
Doxin 2y ago
I've always been taught that "the" is for when there's a single obvious instance you're talking about. There are many policemen and women, but if I say "the police" there's only really one likely candidate which I could be talking about. "A man" is just some guy. If I say "The man" there's a specific guy I'm talking about and I expect you to know which one. Did you know dutch has two words for "the"? One is generally for big or important things and the other for small or unimportant things. I'm sure people trying to learn Dutch love figuring out which you use when.

bmm6o 2y ago

Not only all the phrasal verbs, but that there is no parallelism across usage. Take up, take down, take off versus break up, break down, break off. Knowing the meaning of some of those doesn't really shed light on the meaning of any others.