Subj : Wall To : Gleb Hlebov From : Ardith Hinton Date : Tue Jan 28 2025 23:20:23 Hi, Gleb! Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton: GH> it may not be as bad for us English tutees as for you GH> English speakers who, for whatever reason, would want to GH> start learning Russian just to make a terrifying discovery GH> of nearly 70 various inflection forms (AFAIK) they'd have GH> to learn, or memorize. Good grief! I don't know how many we have in English, but I've heard from apparently intelligent & well-educated Fidonetters in Z2 that they gave up trying to learn German as I did when I was required to memorize 25 prepositions taking three different cases in the ninth lesson. The English language ditched many inflections long ago. OTOH the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes left their mark. The basic vocabulary is tantalizingly familiar at times... so much so that when I told a neighbour who had recently travelled in Europe what I've just told you he said "What cases?" and I had to haul out one of my old textbooks. I get the impression he found the language easy when nobody was marking his grammar. :-) GH> is it correct to assume that a countable noun may be allowed GH> to exist in the story without an article attached to it? Or, GH> on the other hand, a "strictly" uncountable noun may be used GH> with the indef. article in a number of cases? It seems one GH> can't tell by simply looking it up in a dictionary. It may be an overgeneralization to assume one can always do this, but you mentioned "home" in your next message. My Canadian dictionaries offer many examples showing how folks use it in the singular & the plural, with or without articles, and if other dictionaries don't I can easily add ten or twelve. Teachers often remark that before one can ask the right questions one must know at least half of the answers. Once you've cited "home" I realize the same principle applies to "school" and "church" to a more limited extent. Such words denote the names of places but may include social groups or concepts too. GH> Would of never... Well, I've had my share of those, and Could- GH> of-been's too, reading various posts on forums/boards back in GH> the day. I even remember asking somewhere, "I wonder if this GH> could be a contemporary acceptable form of writing it?" :-) The FREE DICTIONARY regards "would of" as a misspelling of "would've" .... according to an entry dated 2024... and that's my take on it. It is fairly common among kids in grade eight, but most people seem to know better later on. In grade eight I made notes re what I thought I had heard in French class. :-Q GH> As with that XYZ company, maybe they're just good average IT GH> professionals, not perfectionists? That is, if you mean GH> "Windows" the OS, I assume, not windows in the house. (Are GH> those even "updatable"?) In this case the company does replace house windows & patio doors. I think it may be to their credit if they're perfectionists in their line of work .... but I can't help being doubtful when they want me to think of them as "real professionals" although they can't spell or pronounce the word correctly. :-)) GH> I've been listening to a great song earlier today, and it's GH> titled "Shoulda": "I shoulda let go... bla-bla... etc." (It's GH> British BTW). Years ago one our Canadian readers here... who was also a musician... typed "coulda, woulda, shoulda". I interpreted his words as roughly equivalent to "hindsight is always 20/20" & according to the above dictionary I was right. It's a "stock expression" used informally, but if teenagers & others who aren't clear on the concept spend far more $$$ downloading popular music to their cell phones than I would I can't blame singers or songwriters for knowing which side their bread is buttered on. Musicians have to make a living somehow... [grin]. GH> "...give house room to" is not about "a room in the house", GH> but "room" as in "Make room!", right? Right. AH> ... to you I`d say something more like "You`ve never heard AH> of Hadrian`s Wall?" :-Q GH> I think I haven't until just now, but Hadrian is/was a GH> proper noun (thus no articles needed)? Yes. Hadrian was the Roman emperor who ordered its construction. GH> "Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by GH> age eighteen." -- Albert Einstein Uh-huh. Some folks evidently believe that once they've finished high school they needn't bother learning any more... [weary sigh]. --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+ * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716) .