Subj : Q of an article (sent through demos gate)
To   : alexander koryagin
From : Ardith Hinton
Date : Fri Mar 02 2018 18:00:57

Hi, Alexander!  Recently you wrote in a message to Oleg Ivannikov:

ak>  We forget that English has no totalitarian rules as
ak>  has the Russian language, due to the history of Russia.

                             [...]

ak>  English is easier than Russian.


           This is grammatically correct usage.



ak>  The English language is easier than the Russian Language.


           This is also grammatically correct usage.  The problem, as I see it, 
is that by changing horses in midstream you ended up with a faulty parallelism. 
Now there's a technical term which might help you locate more information.  :-)



           As for "due to", here's what my GAGE CANADIAN DICTIONARY says:

   "Due" was originally used only as an adjective, and therefore in formal
   English many writers use "due to" only to introduce an adjective phrase
   ... [e.g.] "Her success was due to hard work."  In informal English "due
   to" is often used to introduce an adverb phrase:  "Due to her hard work,
   she succeeded."  However, many people do not approve of this construction.
   To avoid it, use "because of" or "on account of":  "She succeeded because
   of her hard work."  "Because of her hard work, she succeeded."

           I'm not sure whether Roy meant to suggest you omit the words "due to 
the history of Russia" or whether he feels uncomfortable with using "due to" in 
the informal manner described above.  Either way, however, we'd be getting into 
matters of style (which are more a judgement call than a set of rules)....  ;-)



ak>  imho according exactly to this rules we omit "the"
                                |this rule, these rules

ak>  before "youth unemployment".


           Thanks for sharing the explanation from your textbook.  I would have 
analyzed the situation in much the same way Oleg did, if he hadn't beaten me to 
it.  But others might also relate better to the former than to the latter.  :-)




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
 * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)

.