Using the indefinite articles

[Robert Orr]

could we have this discussion in p;ublic?  looks very worthwhile!
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Goloviznin Konstantin" <kottcoos at mail.ru>
To: <SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu>
Sent: Friday, February 19, 2010 6:53 AM
Subject: [SEELANGS] Using the indefinite articles


> 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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