Using the indefinite articles

[Stefan Pugh]

I don't see a problem, or anything contrary to the usual grammatical 
'rules' or descriptions here.  Where 'odin' was used below (not = 
numeral), it simply means "a certain" - not merely the indefinite "a" of 
English.

SPugh

Francoise Rosset wrote:
> This pattern does explain why Russians and émigrés sometimes say "one" 
> where we would expect "a."
> e.g.
> "I read one book on this subject," meaning generally "a book," not "I 
> read just one" -- which is what many Anglophones might understand.
>
> Don't think the French have this issue, because even though our 
> indefinite article is the word for "one," we have been clear on the 
> correspondence between le/la=the and un/une=a.
> -FR
>
>
> On Fri, 19 Feb 2010 09:33:56 -0500
>  Robert Orr <colkitto at ROGERS.COM> wrote:
>> 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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>
> Francoise Rosset, Associate Professor
> Chair, Russian and Russian Studies
> Coordinator, German and Russian
> Wheaton College
> Norton, Massachusetts 02766
> Office: (508) 285-3696
> FAX:   (508) 286-3640
>
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