Using the indefinite articles

[Goloviznin Konstantin]

Hi, all.

I was a bit suprisied to discover the indefinite article in ... Russian. But it really exists (in spite of the Official Grammar being blind on this). Just compare:

Есть у нас ОДИН(= количество) мужик в деревне ... нам бы еще одного. 

И 

Жил был ОДИН (= какой-то, некоторый) старик со своею старухой у самого синего моря. 

According the "iron-made" grammar rule the indefinite article must be always used with singular countable nouns. From another hand live speech trespasses this rule any time when a possibility appears: just to keep words in fluency I have to use the indefinite article otherwisely I don't use it. So we have two rules on using the article in English: formal and informal. 

According the informal rule the following sentence in Russian works: зашел я как-то в ОДНУ фирму. Speaking - зашел я как-то в фирму - is not convinient. 

What do you think about those two rules? Let me know!

With respect, 
Konstantin.    

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